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LIBRARY  OF  THE  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 


PRINCETON,  N.  J. 


Section\L...J...t 


X 


<v 


V 

THE  (       OCT^n  1920 


OCT'^^  1920 


CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 


A   STUDY   IN 


PRIMITIVE  CHRISTIANITY. 


BY 

/ 

OCTAVIUS  BROOKS  FROTHINGHAM. 


NEW  YORK: 
G.    P.    PUTNAM'S    SONS 

182    FIFTH    AVENUE. 
1877. 


Copyright, 
G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS. 

1877- 


PREFACE 


The  literary  intention  of  this  volume  is  sufficiently 
declared  in  the  opening  paragraph,  and  need  not  be 
foreshadowed  in  a  preface  ;  but  as  the  author's  deeper 
motive  may  be  called  in  question,  he  takes  the  liberty 
to  say  a  word  or  two  in  more  particular  explanation. 
The  thought  has  occurred  to  him  on  reading  over 
what  he  has  written,  as  a  casual  reader  might,  that, 
in  his  solicitude  to  make  his  positions  perfectly  clear, 
and  to  state  his  points  concisely,  he  may  have  laid 
himself  open  to  the  charge  of  carrying  on  a  contro- 
versy under  the  pretence  of  explaining  a  literature. 
Such  a  reproach,  his  heart  tells  him,  would  be  unde- 
served. He  disclaims  all  purpose  and  desire  to 
weaken  the  moral  supports  of  any  form  of  religion  ; 
as  little  purpose  or  desire  to  undermine  Christianity, 
as  to  revive  Judaism.  It  is  his  honest  belief  that  no 
genuine  interests  of  religion  are  compromised  by 
scientific  or  literary  studies  ;  that  religion  is  inde- 
pendent of  history,  that  Christianity  is  indepen- 
dent of   the   New  Testament.     He  is  cordially  per- 


IV  PREFACE. 

suaded  that  the  admission  of  every  one  of 'his  con- 
clusions would  leave  the  institutions  of  the  church 
precisely,  in  every  spiritual  respect,  as  they  are ;  and 
in  thus  declaring  he  has  no  mental  reserve,  no  misty 
philosophical  meaning  that  preserves  expressions 
while  destroying  ideas  ;  he  uses  candid,  intelligible 
speech.  The  lily's  perfect  charm  suffers  no  abatement 
from  the  chemist's  analysis  of  the  slime  into  which  it 
strikes  its  slender  root ;  the  grape  of  the  Johannisberg 
vineyards  is  no  less  luscious  from  the  fact  that  the 
soil  has  been  subjected  to  the  microscope ;  the  fine 
qualities  of  the  human  being,  man  or  woman,  are  the 
same  on  any  theory,  the  bible  theory  of  the  perfect 
Adam,  or  Darwin's  of  the  anthropoid  ape.  The  hero 
is  hero  still,  and  the  saint  saint,  whatever  his  ancestry. 
We  reject  the  inference  of  writers  like  Godfrey 
Higgins,  Thomas  Inman,  and  Jules  Soury,  who 
would  persuade  us  that  Christianity  must  be  a  form  of 
nature-worship,  because  nature-worship  was  a  large 
constituent  element  in  the  faiths  from  which  it 
sprung ;  why  should  we  not  reject  the  inference  of 
those  who  would  persuade  us  that  Christianity  is 
doomed  because  the  four  gospels  are  pronounced 
ungenuine  .''  Christianity  is  a  historical  fact ;  an  in- 
stitution ;  it  stands  upon  its  merits,  and  must  justify 
its  merits  by  its  performances ;  first  demonstrating 
its  power,  afterward  pressing  its  claim  ;  vindicating 
its  title  to  exist  by  its  capacity  to  meet  the   actual 


PREFACE.  V 

conditions  of  existence,  and  then  asking  respect  on 
the  ground  of  good  service.  The  church  that  arro- 
gates for  itself  the  right  to  control  the  spiritual  con- 
cerns of  the  modern  world  must  not  plead  in  justifica- 
tion of  its  pretension  that  it  satisfied  the  requirements 
of  devout  people  of  another  hemisphere,  two  thousand 
years  ago.  The  religion  that  fails  to  represent  the 
religious  sentiments  of  living  men  will  not  support 
itself  by  demonstrating  the  genuineness  of  the  New 
Testament,  the  supernatural  birth  of  Jesus,  or  the  in- 
spiration of  Paul.  Other  questions  than  these  are 
asked  now.  When  a  serious  man  wishes  to  know 
what  Christianity  has  to  say  in  regard  to  the  position 
of  woman  in  modern  society,  a  quotation  from  a  letter 
to  the  christians  in  the  Greek  city  of  Corinth,  is  not 
a  satisfactory  reply.  Christianity  must  prove  its 
adaptation  to  the  hour  that  now  is  ;  its  adaptation  to 
days  gone  by,  is  not  to  the  purpose. 

The  church  of  Rome  had  a  glimpse  of  this,  and 
revealed  it  when  it  took  the  ground  that  the  New 
Testament  did  not  contain  the  whole  revelation  ;  that 
the  source  of  inspiration  lay  behind  that,  used  that  as 
one  of  its  manifestations,  and  constantly  supplied  new 
suggestions  as  they  were  needed.  Cardinal  Wiseman 
did  not  hesitate  to  admit  that  the  doctrine  of  trinity 
was  not  stated  in  the  New  Testament,  though  un- 
doubtedly a  belief  of  the  church.  It  would  have  been 
but   a   step  further    in    the    same    direction,  if   Dr. 


VI  PREFACE. 

Newman  should  declare  that  the  critics  might  have 
their  way  with  the  early  records  of  the  religion, 
which,  however  curious  as  literary  remains,  were  not 
essential  to  the  constitution  or  the  work  of  the 
church.  Strauss  and  Renan  may  speculate  and 
welcome ;  the  mission  of  the  church  being  to  bless 
mankind,  their  labors  are  innocent.  A  church  that 
does  not  bless  mankind  cannot  be  saved  by  Auguste 
Nicolas  ;  a  church  that  does  bless  mankind  cannot 
be  injured  by  Ernest  Renan. 

Leading  protestant  minds,  without  making  so 
much  concession  as  the  church  of  Rome,  have  practi- 
cally accepted  the  position  here  maintained.  It  is 
becoming  less  common,  every  day,  to  base  the  claims 
of  Christianity  on  the  New  Testament.  The  most 
learned,  earnest,  and  intelligent  commend  their  faith 
on  its  reasonableness,  confronting  modern  problems 
in  a  modern  way.  St.  George  Mivart  quotes  no 
scripture  against  the  doctrine  of  evolution.  No  one 
reading  Dr.  McCosh  on  the  development  hypothesis, 
would  suppose  him  to  be  a  believer  in  the  inspiration 
of  the  bible.  He  reasons  like  a  reasonable  man, 
meeting  argument  with  argument,  feeling  disposed 
'to  confront  facts  with  something  harder  than  texts. 
The  well  instructed  christian,  if  he  enters  the  arena 
of  scientific  discussion  at  all,  uses  scientific  weapons, 
and  follows  the  rules  of  scientific  warfare.  The  prob- 
lems laid  before  the  modern  world  are  new  ;    scarcely 


PREFACE.  VII 

one  of  them  was  propounded  during  the  first  two 
centuries  of  our  era;  not  one  was  propounded  in 
modern  terms.  The  most  universal  of  them,  like 
poverty,  vice,  the  relations  of  the  strong  and  the 
weak,  present  an  aspect  which  neither  church, 
Father,  nor  Apostle  would  recognize.  Whatever 
bearing  Christianity  has  on  these  questions  must  be 
timely  if  it  is  to  be  efficacious. 

The  doctrine  of  christian  development,  as  it  is 
held  now  by  distinguished  teachers  of  the  christian 
church,  implying  as  it  does  incompleteness  and  there- 
fore defect  in  the  antecedent  stages  of  progress 
points  clearly  to  the  apostolic  and  post  apostolic  times 
as  ages  of  rudimental  experience,  tentative  and  crude. 
Why  should  not  the  entertainers  of  this  doctrine 
calmly  surrender  the  records  and  remains  of  the  pre- 
paratory generations  to  antiquarian  scholars  who  are 
willing  to  investigate  their  character  ?  No  discovery 
they  can  make  will  alter  the  results  which  the  centu- 
ries have  matured.  They  will  simply  more  clearly  ex- 
hibit the  process  whereby  the  results  have  been 
reached. 

We  may  go  further  than  this,  and  maintain  that 
the  unreserved  abandonment  to  criticism  of  the  liter- 
ature and  men  of  the  early  epochs  would  be  a  positive 
advantage  to  Christianity,  for  thereby  the  religion 
would  be  relieved  from  a  serious  embarrassment. 
The  duty,  assumed  by  christians,  of  vindicating  the 


Viri  PREFACE. 

truth  of  whatever  is  found  in  the  New  Testament  im- 
poses grave  difficulties.  It  is  safe  to  say  that  a  very 
large  part  of  the  disbelief  in  Christianity  proceeds  from 
doubts  raised  by  Strauss,  Renan,  and  others  who  have 
cast  discredit  on  some  portions  of  this  literature. 
Christians  have  their  faith  shaken  by  those  authors  ; 
and  doubtless  some  who  are  not  christians  are  preju- 
diced against  the  religion  by  books  of  rational  criti- 
cism. The  romanist,  failing  to  establish  by  the  New 
Testament,  or  by  the  history  of  the  first  two  centuries, 
the  primacy  of  Peter,  the  supremacy  of  Rome,  the 
validity  of  the  sacraments,  the  divine  sanction  of  the 
episcopacy,  loses  the  convertwhom  the  majestic  order 
of  the  papacy  might  attract.  The  protestant,  failing 
to  prove  by  apostolic  texts  his  cardinal  dogmas,  pre- 
destination, atonement,  election,  must  see  depart  un- 
satisfied, the  inquirer  whom  a  philosophical  exposition 
m.ight  have  won.  The  necessity  of  justifying  the 
account  of  the  miraculous  birth  of  Jesus  repels  the 
doubter  whom  a  purely  intellectual  conception  of  in- 
carnation might  have  fascinated;  and  the  obligation 
to  believe  the  story  of  a  physical  resurrection  is  an 
added  obstacle  to  the  reception  of  a  spiritual  faith  in 
immortality.  Scholarship  has  so  effectually  shown 
the  impossibility  of  bringing  apostolical  guarantee  for 
the  creed  of  Christendom,  that  the  creed  cannot  get 
even  common  justice  done  it  while  it  compromises 
itself  with  the  beliefs  of  the  primitive  church.     The 


PREFACE.  IX 

inspiration  of  the  New  Testament  is  an  article  that 
unsettles.  Naturally  it  is  the  first  point  of  attack,  and 
its  extreme  vulnerability  raises  a  suspicion  of  weak- 
ness in  the  whole  system.  The  protestant  theology, 
as  held  by  the  more  enlightened  minds,  is  capable  of 
philosophical  statement  and  defence  ;  but  it  cannot 
be  stated  in  New  Testament  language,  or  defended  on 
apostolical  authority.  The  creed  really  has  not  a  fair 
chance  to  be  appreciated.  Its  power  to  uphold  spirit- 
ual ideas,  and  develop  spiritual  truths  ;  its  specula- 
tive resources  as  an  antagonist  of  scientific  material- 
ism, animal  fatahsm,  and  sensualism,  are  rendered  all 
but  useless.  Powerful  minds  are  fettered,  and  good 
scholarship  is  wasted  in  the  attempt  to  identify  be- 
ginnings with  results,  roots  with  fruits. 

This  is  a  consideration  of  much  weight.  When 
we  remember  how  much  time  and  concern  are  given 
to  the  study  of  the  New  Testament  for  controversial 
or  apologetic  purposes,  to  establish  its  genuineness, 
maintain  its  authority,  justify  its  miracles,  explain 
away  its  difficulties,  reconcile  its  contradictions,  har- 
monize its  differences,  read  into  its  texts  the  thoughts 
of  later  generations,  and  then  reflect  on  the  lack  of 
mind  bestowed  on  the  important  task  of  recommend- 
ing religious  ideas  to  a  world  that  is  spending  enor- 
mous sums  of  intellectual  force  on  the  problems  of 
physical  science  and  the  arts  of  material  civilization, 
the  close  association  of  the  latest  with  the   earliest 


X  PREFACE. 

faith  seems  a  deplorable  misfortune.  If  there  ever 
was  a  time  when  the  purely  spiritual  elements  in  the 
religion  of  the  foremost  races  of  mankind  should  be 
developed  and  pressed,  the  time  is  now  ;  and  to  miss 
the  opportunity  by  misplacing  the  energy  that  would 
redeem  it  is  anything  but  consoling  to  earnest 
minds. 

Thus  might  reason  a  full  believer  in  the  creed  of 
Christendom,  a  devoted  member  of  the  church  ; 
Greek,  Roman,  German,  English.  The  man  of  let- 
ters viewing  the  situation  from  his  own  point,  will, 
of  course,  feel  less  intensely  the  mischiefs  entailed  by 
the  error ;  but  the  error  will  be  to  him  no  less  evi- 
dent. It  is  sometimes,  in  war,  an  advantage  to  lose 
outworks  that  cannot  be  defended  without  fatally 
weakening  the  line,  drawing  the  strength  of  the  gar- 
rison away  from  vulnerable  points,  and  exposing  the 
centre  to  formidable  assault.  The  present  writer, 
though  no  friend  to  the  christian  system,  believes  him- 
self to  be  a  friend  of  spiritual  beliefs,  and  would  gladly 
feel  that  he  is,  by  his  essay,  rather  strengthening 
than  weakening  the  cause  of  faith,  by  whatever  class 
of  men  maintained. 


CONTENTS. 


Pages. 

I.     False  Position  of  the  New  Testament.  i 

II.     The   Messiah 14 

III.  The   Sects 40 

IV.  The   Messiah  in  the  New   Testament.  51 
V.     The   First   Christians 70 

VI.     Paul's   New    Departure 8;^ 

VII.     The   Last    Gospel 106 

VIII.     The  Western  Church 140 

IX.     Jesus 184 

Authorities 228 


I. 

FALSE  POSITION  OF  THE  NEW 
TESTAMENT. 

The  original  purpose  of  this  little  volume  was  to  in- 
dicate the  place  of  the  New  Testament  in  the  literature 
of  the  Hebrew  people,  to  show  in  fact  how  it  is  compre- 
hended in  the  scope  of  that  literature.  The  plan  has 
been  widened  to  satisfy  the  demands  of  a  larger  class  of 
readers,  and  to  record  more  fully  the  work  of  its  lead- 
ing idea.  Still  the  consideration  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment literature  is  of  primary  importance.  The  writer 
submits  that  the  New  Testament  is  to  be  received 
as  a  natural  product  of  the  Hebrew  genius,  its  con- 
tents attesting  the  creative  power  of  the  Jewish  mind. 
He  hopes  to  make  it  seem  probable  to  unprejudiced 
people,  that  its  different  books  merely  carry  to  the  la^it 
point  of  attenuation,  and  finally  exhaust  the  capacity 
of  ideas  that  exerted  a  controlling  influence  on  the  de- 
velopment of  that  branch  of  the  human  family.  To  pro- 
fundity of  research,  or  originality  of  conclusion,  he 
makes  no  claim.     He  simply  records  in  compact  and 


2  THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

summary  form,  the  results  of  reading  and  reflection, 
gathered  in  the  course  of  many  years,  kept  in  note 
books,  revised  year  by  year,  tested  by  use  in  oral  instruc- 
tion, and  reduced  to  system  by  often  repeated  manipula- 
tion. The  resemblance  of  his  views,  in  certain  particu- 
lars, to  those  set  forth  by  German  critics  of  the  school 
of  Strauss  or  of  Baur,  he  is  at  no  pains  to  conceal.  His 
deep  indebtedness  to  them,  he  delights  to  confess.  At 
the  same  time  he  can  honestly  say  that  he  is  a  disciple 
of  no  special  school,  writes  in  the  interest  of  no  theory 
or  group  of  theories,  but  simply  desires  to  establish 
a  point  of  literary  consequence.  All  polemic  or  dog- 
matical intention  he  disavows,  all  disposition  to  lower 
the  dignity,  impair  the  validity,  or  weaken  the  spiritual 
supports  of  Christianity.  His  aim,  truly  and  soberly 
speaking,  is  to  set  certain  literary  facts  in  their  just 
relation  to  one  another. 

It  has  not  been  customary,  nor  is  it  now  custom- 
ary to  assign  to  the  New  Testament  a  place  among  the 
literary  productions  of  the  human  mind.  The  collec- 
tion of  books  bearing  that  name  has  been,  and  still  is 
regarded  by  advocates  of  one  or  another  theory  of  in- 
spiration, as  of  exceptional  origin,  in  that  they  express 
the  divine,  not  the  human  mind ;  being  writings  super- 
human in  substance  if  not  in  form,  containing  thoughts 
that  could  not  have  occurred  to  the  unaided  intelligence 
of  man,  neither  are  amenable  to  the  judgment  of  un- 
inspired reason.    To  read  this  volume  as  other  volumes 


THE    CRADLE    OF    THE- CHRIST.  3 

are  read  is  forbidden  ;  to  apply  to  it  ordinary  critical 
methods  is  held  to  be  an  impertinence  ;  to  detect  er- 
rors or  flaws  in  it,  as  in  Homer,  Plato,  Thucydides,  is 
pronounced  an  unpardonable  arrogance.  A  book  that 
contains  revelations  of  the  supreme  wisdom  and  will 
must  be  accepted  and  revered,  must  not  be  arraigned. 

Criticism  has  therefore,  among  believers  chiefly 
we  may  almost  say  solely,  been  occupied  with  the 
task  of  establishing  the  genuineness  and  authenticity 
of  the  writings,  harmonizing  their  teachings,  arranging 
their  contents,  explaining  texts  in  accordance  with  the 
preconceived  theory  of  a  divine  origin,  vindicating 
doubtful  passages  against  the  objections  of  skeptics, 
and  extracting  from  chapter  and  verse  the  sense  re- 
quired by  the  creed.  Literature  has  been  permitted  to 
illustrate  or  confirm  points,  but  has  not  been  called  in 
to  correct,  for  that  would  be  to  judge  the  infinite  by 
the  finite  mind. 

In  accordance  with  this  accepted  view  of  the  New 
Testament  as  a  miraculous  book,  students  of  it  have 
fallen  into  the  way  of  surveying  it  as  a  detached  field, 
unconnected  by  organic  elements  with  the  surrounding 
territory  of  mind  ;  have  examined  it  as  if  it  made  no 
part  of  an  extensive  geological  formation,  as  men  for- 
merly took  up  an  aerolite  or  measured  a  boulder.  The 
materials  of  knowledge  respecting  the  book  have  been 
sought  within  the  volume  itself,  neither  Greek, 
Roman,  German  nor  Englishman  presuming  to  think 


4  THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

that  a  beam  from  the  outside  world  could  illumine  a 
book 

Which  gives  a  light  to  every  age, 

Which  gives,  but  borrows  none. 

The  rationalists  it  is  needness  to  say,  avoided  this 
error,  but  they  betrayed  a  sense  of  the  peril  arising 
from  it,  in  the  polemical  spirit  that  characterized  much 
of  their  writing.  In  Germany,  the  tone  of  rationalism 
was  more  sober  and  scientific  than  elsewhere,  because 
biblical  questions  were  there  discussed  in  the  scho- 
lastic seclusion  of  the  University,  in  lectures  delivered 
by  learned  professors  to  students  engaged  in  pursuits 
purely  intellectual.  The  lectures  were  not  addressed 
to  an  excitable  multitude,  as  such  discourses  are,  to  a 
certain  extent,  in  France  or  England,  and  particularly 
in  America,  and  consequently  stirred  no  religious  pas- 
sions. The  books  published  were  read  by  a  small 
class  of  specialists  who  studied  them  as  they  would 
treatises  in  any  other  department  of  ancient  literature. 
Nearly  half  a  century  ago  the  disbelief  in  miracles, 
portents,  and  supernatural  interventions,  was  enter- 
tained and  published  by  German  university  profes- 
sors ;  stories  of  prodigies  were  discredited  on  the  gen- 
eral ground  of  their  incredibility,  and  the  books  that 
reported  them  were  set  down  as  untrustworthy,  what- 
ever might  be  the  evidence  of  their  genuineness.  A 
miraculous  narrative  was  on  the  face  of  it  unauthentic. 
Efforts  were  accordingly  made  to  bring  the  New  Tes- 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST.  5 

tament  writings  within  the  categories  of  literature. 
Criticism  began  the  task  by  applying  rules  of  "  natu- 
ral" interpretation  to  the  legendary  portions,  thus 
abolishing  the  supernatural  peculiarity  and  leaving 
the  merely  human  parts  to  justify  themselves.  The 
method  was  the  best  that  offered,  but  it  was  unscien- 
tific ;  "  unnaturally  natural ;  "  confused  from  the  ne- 
cessity of  supplementing  knowledge  by  conjecture, 
and  faulty  through  the  amount  of  arbitrary  supposi- 
tion that  had  to  be  introduced.  Attention  was  di- 
rected to  the  historical  or  biographical  aspect  of  the 
books,  and  only  incidentally  to  their  literary  charac- 
ter, as  productions  of  their  age. 

The  method  pursued  by  Strauss  was  strictly  sci- 
entific and  literary,  though  on  the  surface  it  seemed 
to  be  concerned  with  biographical  details.  By  treat- 
ing the  narratives  of  miracles  as  mythical  rather  than 
as  legendary,  as  intellectual  and  dogmatic  rather  than 
as  fanciful  or  imaginary  creations,  and  by  tracing 
their  origin  to  the  traditionary  beliefs  of  the  Old  Tes- 
tament, he  ran  both  literatures  together  as  one,  show- 
ing the  new  to  be  a  continuation  or  reproduction  of 
the  old.  The  construction,  otherwise,  of  the  New 
Testament  literature  concerned  him  but  incidentally. 
The  first  "  Life  of  Jesus,"  published  in  part  in  1835, 
was  devoted  to  the  discussion  of  the  gospels  as  books 
of  history.  The  second — a  revision — was  published  in 
1864,  contained  a  much  larger  proportion  of  literary 


O  THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

matter  in  the  form  of  documentary  discussion,  made 
frequent  references  to  Baur,  and  other  writers  of  the 
Tubingen  School,  and  attached  great  weight  to  their 
conclusions.  In  the  "  Old  and  the  New  Faith,"  pub- 
lished nearly  ten  years  later,  the  main  conclusions  of 
Baur  are  adopted  as  the  legitimate  issue  of  literary 
criticism,  though  without  attempt  at  formal  reconcili- 
ation with  his  own  original  view. 

Baur's  method  was  original  "with  himself.  He 
finds  the  key  to  the  secret  of  the  composition  of 
the  first  three  Gospels,  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles 
and  portions  of  other  books,  in  the  quarrel  between 
Paul  and  Peter  feelingly  described  in  the  second 
chapter  of  the  letter  to  the  Galatians.  The  "synop- 
tical" Gospels,  he  contends,  and  with  singular  in- 
genuity argues,  are  the  results  of  that  controversy 
between  the  broad  and  the  narrow  churches;  are 
not,  therefore,  writings  of  historical  value  or  bio- 
graphical moment,  but  books  of  a  doctrinal  character, 
not  controversial  or  polemical, — mediatorial  and  con- 
ciliatory rather  than  aggressive, — but  written  in  a 
controversial  interest,  and  intelligible  only  when  read 
by  a  controversial  light.  Baur  called  his  the  "  histor- 
ical" method,  as  distinguished  from  the  dogmatical, 
the  textual,  the  negative ;  because  his  starting  point 
was  a  historical  fact,  namely,  the  actual  dispute  re- 
corded, in  language  of  passionate  earnestness,  by  one 
of  the   parties  to  it,  and  distinctly  confessed  in  the 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST.  i 

attitude  of  the  other.  But  Baur's  method  has  a  still 
better  title  to  be  called  literary,  for  it  is  concerned 
with  the  literary  composition  of  the  New  Testament 
writings,  and  with  the  dispute  as  accounting  for  their 
existence  and  form.  His  studies  on  the  fourth  Gos- 
pel, and  on  the  life  and  writings  of  the  Apostle  Paul, 
are  admirable  examples  of  the  unprejudiced  literary 
method ;  by  far  the  most  intelligent,  comprehensive 
and  consistent  ever  made  ;  simply  invaluable  in  their 
kind.  They  contain  all  that  is  necessary  for  a  com- 
plete rationale  of  the  New  Testament  literature. 
These,  taken  in  connection  with  his  "  History  of  the 
First  Three  Centuries,"  his  "  Origin  of  the  Episco- 
pate," his  "  Dogmengeschichte,"  put  the  patient  and 
attentive  student  in  possession  of  the  full  case.  But 
Baur  lacked  constructive  talent  of  a  high  order,  and 
has  been  less  successful  than  inferior  men  in  em- 
bracing details  in  a  wide  generalization. 

Renan  adopts  the  method  of  the  early  rationalists, 
but  applies  it  with  a  freedom  and  facility  of  which 
they  were  incapable.  He  takes  up  the  Gospels  as 
history,  and  sifts  the  literature  in  order  to  get  at  the 
history.  He  claims  to  possess  the  historical  sense, 
by  virtue  of  which  he  is  able  to  separate  the  genuine 
from  the  ungenuine  portions  of  the  Gospels.  It  is  a 
point  with  him  to  sho^/  how  the  character  of  Jesus 
was  moulded  by  the  spirit  of  his  age,  and  by  the  liter- 
ature on  which  he  was  nurtured  ;  but  his  treatment 


8  THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

of  the  evangelical  narratives  as  a  mass  of  biographical 
notes  reflecting,  with  more  or  less  correctness,  the 
personality  of  Jesus,  is  not  quite  compatible  with  a 
rational  or  even  a  literary  treatment  of  them  as  a 
continuation  of  the  traditions  of  the  Hebrew  people. 
The  constructive  force  being  centred  in  Jesus  him- 
self, the  full  recognition  of  the  creative  genius  of  the 
Hebrew  mind,  which  was  illustrated  in  Jesus  and  his 
age,  was  precluded.  Renan  is  in  a  measure  com- 
pelled to  make  Jesus  a  prodigy — an  exceptional  per- 
son, who  baffles  ordinary  standards  of  judgment ;  and 
in  so  doing  distorts  the  connection  between  him,  the 
generations  that  went  before,  and  the  generations  that 
came  after.  Strauss  does  more  justice  to  the  New 
Testament  literature,  in  attempting  only  its  partial 
explanation.  Baur  does  more  justice  to  it  in  seeking 
a  literary  explanation  of  the  writings  as  they  are. 
Renan  picks  and  chooses  according  to  our  arbitrary 
criterion,  which  capriciously  disports  itself  over  a 
field  covered  with  promiscuous  treasures. 

Lord  Amberley's  more  recent  attempt  reveals  the 
weakness  of  the  common  procedure.  Without  the 
learning  of  Strauss,  the  perspicacity  of  Baur,  or  the 
brilliant  audacity  of  Renan,  he  strays  over  the  field, 
making  suggestions  neither  profound  nor  original,  and 
rather  obliterating  the  distinct  impressions  his  prede- 
cessors have  made  than  making  new  ones  of  his  own. 
His  chapter  on  Jesus  will  illustrate  the  confusion  that 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST.  9 

must  issue  from  a  false  method,  which  does  not  deserve 
to  be  called  a  method  at  all. 

Books  have  been  written  about  the  New  Testa- 
ment by  the  thousand — libraries  of  books  ;  but  they 
merely  supplant  and  refute  one  another.  Each  is  en- 
titled to  as  much  consideration  as  the  rest,  and  to  no 
more.  The  old  materials  are  turned  over  and  over  ; 
the  texts  are  subjected  to  new  cross-examinations  ; 
the  chapters  and  incidents  are  shuffled  about  with 
fresh  ingenuity ;  new  suppositions  are  started  ;  new 
combinations  are  made  ;  but  all  with  no  satisfactory 
result.  Whether  it  be  Auguste  Nicolas,  who  recon- 
structs the  Gospels  to  justify  the  predispositions  of 
Romanism  ;  or  Edmond  de  Pressense,  who  does  the 
same  service  for  liberal  Protestantism ;  or  Henry  Ward 
Beecher,  who  constructs  a  Christ  out  of  the  elements 
of  an  exuberant  fancy  ;  or  William  Henry  Furness, 
who  is  certain  that  "  naturalness  "  furnishes  the  touch- 
stone of  historical  truth  ;  the  conclusion  is  about 
equally  inconclusive. 

The  literary  method  avoids  the  dogmatical  embar- 
rassments incident  to  the  supernatural  theory  ;  offers 
easy  solutions  of  difficult  problems  ;  connects  inci- 
dents with  their  antecedents  ;  interprets  dark  sayings 
by  the  light  of  association  ;  and  places  fragments  in 
the  pbces  where  they  belong.  An  exhaustive  appli- 
cation of  this  treatment  would  probably  explain  every 
Dassasre  in  the  New  Testament  writings.     A  partial 


lO  THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

application  of  it  like  the  present  will  indicate  at  least 
some  of  the  capacities  of  the  method. 

The  literary  treatment  differs  from  the  dogmatical 
represented  by  the  older  theologians  who  used  the 
New  Testament  as  a  text  book  of  doctrine  ;  from  the 
purely  exegetical  or  critical,  which  consisted  in  the 
impartial  examination  of  its  separate  parts  ;  from 
the  destructive  or  decomposing  treatment  pursued  by 
the  so-called  "  rationalism  ;  "  and  from  the  "  histor- 
ical," as  employed  by  Baur  and  the  "  Tubingen  school." 
It  is  in  some  respects  more  comprehensive  and  posi- 
tive than  either  of  these,  while  in  special  points  it 
adopts  all  but  the  first.  Every  other  method  presents 
a  controversial  face,  and  is  something  less  than  scien- 
tific, by  being  to  a  certain  degree  inhospitable.  This 
consults  only  the  laws  which  preside  over  the  literary 
expression  given  to  human  thoughts. 

It  has  been  customary  with  christians  to  widen  as 
much  as  possible  the  gulf  between  the  Old  and  the 
New  Testaments,  in  order  that  Christianity  might  ap- 
pear in  the  light  of  a  fresh  and  transcendent  revela- 
tion, supplementing  the  ancient,  but  supplanting  it. 
The  most  favorable  view  of  the  Old  Testament  re- 
gards it  as  a  porch  to  the  new  edifice,  a  collection  of 
types  and  foregleams  of  a  grandeur  about  to  follow. 
The  Old  Testament  has  been  and  still  is  held  to  be 
preparatory  to  the  New  ;  Moses  is  the  schoolmaster 
to  bring  men  to  Christ.     The  contrast  of  Law  with 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST.  II 

Gospel,  Commandment  with  Beatitude,  Justice  with 
Love,  has  been  presented  in  every  form.  Christian 
teachers  have  deUghted  to  exhibit  the  essential  supe- 
riority of  Christianity  to  Judaism,  have  quoted  with 
triumph  the  maxims  that  fell  from  the  lips  of  Jesus, 
and  which,  they  surmised,  could  not  be  paralleled  in  the 
elder  Scriptures,  and  have  put  the  least  favorable  con- 
struction on  such  passages  in  the  ancient  books  as 
seemed  to  contain  the  thoughts  of  evangelists  and 
apostles.  A  more  ingenuous  study  of  the  Hebrew 
Law,  according  to  the  oldest  traditions,  as  well  as  its 
later  interpretations  by  the  prophets,  reduces  these 
differences  materially  by  bringing  into  relief  senti- 
ments and  precepts  whereof  the  New  Testament  mo- 
rality is  but  an  echo.  There  are  passages  in  Exodus, 
Leviticus,  Deuteronomy,  even  tenderer  in  their  human- 
ity than  anything  in  the  gospels.  The  preacher  from 
the  Mount,  the  prophet  of  the  Beatitudes,  does  but 
repeat  with  persuasive  lips  what  the  law-givers  of  his 
race  proclaimed  in  mighty  tones  of  command.  Such 
an  acquaintance  with  the  later  literature  of  the  Jews 
as  is  readily  obtained  now  from  popular  sources,  will 
convince  the  ordinarily  fair  mind  that  the  originality  of 
the  New  Testament  has  been  greatly  over-estimated. 
Even  a  hasty  reading  of  easily  accessible  books, 
makes  it  clear  that  Jesus  and  his  disciples  were  Jews 
in  mind  and  character  as  well  as  by  country  and  race ; 
and  will  render  it  at  least  doubtful  whether  they  ever 


12  THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

outgrew  the  traditions  of  their  birth.  Paul's  claim  to 
be  a  Hebrew  of  the  Hebrews,  a  Pharisee  of  the  Phar- 
isees, '*  circumcised  the  eighth  day,  of  the  stock  of 
Israel,  of  the  tribe  of  Benjamin,"  is  found  to  be  more 
than  justified  by  his  writings  ;  and  even  John's  exalted 
spirituality  proves  to  be  an  aroma  from  a  literature 
which  Christianity  disavows.  The  phrases  "  Redemp- 
tion," "Grace,"  "Faith,"  "Baptism,"  "Salvation," 
"Regeneration,"  ''Son  of  Man,"  "Son  of  God," 
"  Kingdom  of  Heaven,"  are  native  to  this  literature, 
and  as  familiar  there  as  in  gospel  or  epistle.  The 
symbolism  of  the  Apocalypse,  Jewish  throughout, 
with  its  New  Jerusalem,  its  consecration  of  the  num- 
ber twelve, — twelve  foundations,  twelve  gates,  twelve 
stars,  twelve  angels, — points  to  deeper  correspon- 
dences that  do  not  meet  the  eye,  but  occur  to  re- 
flection. We  remember  that  the  New  Testament 
constantly  refers  to  the  Old  ;  that  great  stress  is  laid 
on  the  fulfilment  of  ancient  prophecies  ;  that  Jesus 
explicitly  declares,  at  the  opening  of  his  ministry,  that 
he  came  not  to  destroy  the  law  or  the  prophets,  but 
to  reaffirm  and  complete  them,  saying  with  earnest 
force  "  till  heaven  and  earth  pass,  not  one  jot  or  tittle 
shall  in  any  wise  pass  from  the  law  until  all  be  ful- 
filled." We  discover  that  his  criticisms  bore  hard  on 
the  casuists  who  corrupted  the  law  by  their  glosses, 
but  were  made  in  the  interest  of  the  original  com- 
mandment, which  had  been  caricatured.     In  a  word, 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST.  1 3 

SO  completely  is  the  space  between  the  old  dispensa- 
tion and  the  new  bridged  over,  that  the  most  delicate 
and  fragile  fancies,  the  lightest  imagery,  the  daintiest 
fabrics  of  the  intellectual  world  are  transported  with- 
out rent  or  fracture,  across  the  gulf  opened  by  the 
captivity,  and  the  deserts  caused  by  the  desolating 
quarrels  that  attended  the  new  attempts  at  reconstruc- 
tion, while  the  massive  ideas  that  lie  at  the  founda- 
tion of  Hebraic  thought,  wherever  found,  are  landed 
without  risk  or  confusion  in  the  new  territory.  Be- 
tween the  Jewish  and  the  Christian  scriptures  there 
is  not  so  much  as  a  blank  leaf. 

If  this  can  be  made  apparent  without  over-stating 
the  facts,  everything  in  the  New  Testament,  from  the 
character  of  Jesus,  and  the  constitution  of  the  primi- 
tive church,  to  the  later  development  by  Paul,  and  the 
latest  by  John,  must  be  subjected  to  a  revision,  which 
though  fatal  to  Christianity's  claim  to  be  a  special 
revelation,  will  restore  dignity  to  the  Semitic  charac- 
ter, and  consistency  to  the  development  of  historic 
truth.  Better  still,  it  will  heal  the  breach  between 
two  great  religions,  and  will  contribute  to  that  dis- 
armament of  faiths  from  which  good  hearts  anticipate 
most  important  results.  Of  all  this  hints  only  can 
be  given  in  a  short  essay  like  this  ;  but  if  the  hints 
are  suggestive  in  themselves  or  from  their  arrange- 
ment, a  service  will  be  rendered  to  the  cause  of  truth 
that  may  deserve  recognition. 


II. 

THE    MESSIAH. 

The  period  of  the  captivity  in  Babylon,  which  is 
commonly  regarded  as  a  period  of  sadness  and  desola- 
tion, a  blank  space  of  interruption  in  the  nation's  life, 
was,  in  reality,  a  period  of  intense  mental  activity ; 
probably  the  highest  spiritual  moment  in  the  history 
of  the  people.  Dispossessed  of  their  own  territory, 
relieved  of  the  burden  and  freed  from  the  distraction 
of  politics,  their  disintegrating  tribal  feuds  terminated 
by  foreign  conquest,  living,  as  unoppressed  exiles,  in 
one  of  the  world's  greatest  cities,  with  opportunities 
for  observation  and  reflection  never  enjoyed  before, 
havins:  unbroken  leisure  in  the  midst  of  material  and 
intellectual  opulence,  the  true  children  of  Israel  de- 
voted themselves  to  the  task  of  rebuilding  spiritually 
the  state  that  had  been  politically  overthrown.  The 
writings  that  reflect  this  period,  particularly  the  later 
portions  of  Isaiah,  exhibit  the  soul  of  the  nation  in 
proud  resistance  against  the  unbelief,  the  disloyalty, 
the  worldliness,  that  were  demoralizing  the  less  noble^ 
part  of  their  countrymen.     The  duty  was  laid  on  them 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST.  1 5 

to  support  the  national  character,  revive  the  national 
faith,  restore  the  national  courage,  and  rebuild  the  na- 
tional purpose.  To  this  end  they  collected  the  tradi- 
tions of  past  glory,  gathered  up  the  fragments  of 
leo-end  and  song,  reanimated  the  souls  of  their  heroes 
and  saints,  developed  ideas  that  existed  only  in  germ, 
arranged  narratives  and  legislation,  and  constructed 
an  ideal  state.  There  is  reason  to  believe  that  the 
real  genius  of  the  people  was  first  called  into  full  ex- 
ercise, and  put  on  its  career  of  development  at  this 
time;  that  Babylon  was  a  forcing  nursery,  not  a 
prison  cell ;  creating  instead  of  stifling  a  nation.  The 
astonishing  outburst  of  intellectual  and  moral  energy 
that  accompanied  the  return  from  the  Babylonish  cap- 
tivity attests  the  spiritual  activity  of  that  ''  mysterious 
and  momentous  "  time.  When  the  hour  of  deliverance 
struck,  the  company  of  defeated,  disheartened,  crush- 
ed, to  all  seeming,  "  reckless,  lawless,  godless  "  exiles 
camie  forth  "transformed  into  a  band  of  puritans." 
The  books  that  remain  from  those  generations,  Daniel, 
the  Maccabees,  Esdras,  are  charged  with  an  impetu- 
ous eloquence  and  a  frenzied  zeal. 

The  Talmud,  that  vast  treasury  of  speculation  on 
divine  things,  had  its  origin  about  this  period.  Re- 
cent researches  into  that  wilderness  of  thought  reveal 
wonders  and  beauties  that  were  never  till  recently 
divulged.  The  deepest  insights,  the  most  bewildering 
fancies,  exist  there   side  by   side.     The   intellectual 


l6  THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

powers  of  a  race  exhausted  themselves  in  efforts  to 
penetrate  the  mysteries  of  faith.  The  fragments  of 
national  literature  that  had  been  rescued  from  obli- 
vion, were  pondered  over,  scrutinized,  arranged,  classi- 
fied, with  a  superstitious  veneration  that  would  not  be 
satisfied  till  all  the  possibilities  of  interpretation  had 
been  tried.  The  command  to  "  search  the  scriptures  " 
for  in  them  were  the  words  of  eternal  life,  was  ac- 
cepted and  faithfully  obeyed.  "  The  Talmud "  says 
Emanuel  Deutsch,  "  is  more  than  a  book  of  laws,  it  is 
a  microcosm,  embracing,  even  as  does  the  Bible, 
heaven  and  earth.  It  is  as  if  all  the  prose  and  poetry, 
the  science,  the  faith  and  speculation  of  the  old  world 
were,  though  only  in  faint  reflections,  bound  up  in  it 
in  mice!'  The  theme  of  discussion,  conjecture,  spec- 
ulation, allegory  was,  from  first  to  last,  the  same, — 
the  relation  between  Jehovah  and  his  people,  the  na- 
ture and  conditions  of  salvation,  the  purport  of  the 
law,  the  bearing  of  the  promises.  The  entire  field  of 
investigation  was  open,  reaching  all  the  way  from  the 
number  of  words  in  the  Bible  to  the  secret  of  infinite 
being.  No  passage  was  left  unexposed  with  all  the 
keenness  that  faith  aided  by  culture  could  supply ; 
and  when  reason  reached  the  end  of  its  tether,  fancy 
took  up  the  work  and  threaded  with  unwearied  indus- 
try the  mazes  of  allegory. 

Among  the  problems  that   challenged  solution  was 
the   one   touching:   the    Messiah,    his    attributes   and 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST.  1 7 

offices,  his  nature  and  his  kingdom.  This  theme  had 
inexhaustible  capacities  and  infinite  attraction,  for  it 
was  but  another  form  of  the  theme  of  national  deliv- 
erance which  was  uppermost  in  the  Hebrew  mind. 

The  history  of  the  Messianic  idea  is  involved  in 
the  obscurity  that  clouds  the  early  history  of  Israel  ; 
and  this  again  is  embarrassed  with  the  extreme  diffi- 
culty of  deciding  the  antiquity  of  the  Hebrew  scrip- 
tures. At  what  moment  was  Israel  fully  persuaded 
of  its  providential  destiny  ?  That  is  the  question.  For 
the  germs  of  the  Messianic  idea  were  contained  in 
the  bosom  of  that  persuasion.  That  the  idea  was 
slow  in  forming  must  be  conceded  under  any  estimate 
of  its  antiquity  ;  for  its  development  depended  on  the 
experiences  of  the  nation,  and  these  experiences  un- 
derwent in  history  numerous  and  violent  fluctu- 
ations. The  hope  of  a  deliverer  came  with  the  felt 
need  of  deliverance,  and  the  consciousness  of  this  need 
grew  with  the  soreness  of  the  calamity  under  which 
the  nation  groaned,  as  the  character  of  it  was  deter- 
mined by  the  character  of  the  calamity.  The  national 
expectation  was  necessarily  vague  at  first.  It  rested 
originally  on  the  tradition  of  a  general  promise  given 
to  Abraham  that  his  descendants  should  be  a  great 
and  happy  nation,  blessing  and  redeeming  the  nations 
of  the  earth ;  that  their  power  should  be  world-wide, 
their  wealth  inexhaustible,  their  peace  undisturbed, 
their  moral  supremacy  gladly  acknowledged.     "  The 


1 8  THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

Lord  shall  cause  thine  enemies  that  rise  up  against 
thee  to  be  smitten  before  thy  face  ;  they  shall  come 
out  against  thee  one  way,  and  flee  before  thee  seven 
ways.  The  Lord  shall  command  the  blessing  upon 
thee  in  thy  storehouses,  and  in  all  that  thou  settest 
thy  hand  unto  ;  and  he  shall  bless  thee  in  the  land 
which  the  Lord  thy  God  giveth  thee.  The  Lord  shall 
estabhsh  thee  an  holy  people  unto  himself,  as  he  hath 
sworn  unto  thee,  if  thou  shalt  keep  the  command- 
ments of  the  Lord,  and  walk  in  his  ways  ;  and  all 
people  of  the  earth  shall  see  that  thou  art  called  by 
the  name  of  the  Lord." 

As  a  promise  made  by  Jehovah  must  be  kept,  the 
anticipation  of  its  fulfilment  became  strong  as  the 
prospect  of  it  grew  dim.  The  days  of  disaster  were  the 
days  of  expectation.  The  prophets  laid  stress  on  the  con- 
dition, charged  the  delay  upon  lukewarmness,  and  urged 
the  necessity  of  stricter  conformity  with  the  divine 
will ;  but  the  people,  oblivious  of  duty,  held  to  the  pledge 
and  cherished  the  anticipation.  When  the  national 
hope  assumed  the  concrete  form  of  faith  in  the  advent 
of  an  individual,  when  the  conception  of  the  individ- 
ual became  clothed  in  supernatural  attributes,  is  un- 
certain. Probably  the  looked-for  deliverer  was  from 
the  first  regarded  as  more  than  human.  It  could 
hardly  be  otherwise,  as  he  was  to  be  the  representa- 
tive and  agent  of  Jehovah,  an  incarnation  of  his  truth 
and  righteousness.     The  Hebrews  easily  confounding 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST.  I9 

the  human  with  the  superhuman,  were  always  tempted 
to  ascribe  supernatural  qualities  to  their  political  and 
spiritual  leaders,  believing  that  they  were  divinely 
commissioned,  attested  and  furthered ;  and  the 
person  who  was  to  accomplish  what  none  of  them  had 
so  much  as  hopefully  undertaken,  would  naturally  be 
clothed  by  an  enthusiastic  imagination,  with  attributes 
more  than  mortal.  The  poets  depicted  the  stories  of 
the  future  restoration  in  language  of  extraordinary 
splendor.  Joel,  some  say  eight  hundred  years  before 
Jesus,  two  hundred  years  before  the  first  captivity, 
foreshadows  the  restoration,  but  without  any  portrait- 
ure of  the  victorious  Prince.  A  century  and  a  half 
later  we  will  suppose,  the  first  Isaiah  speaks  of  the 
providential  child  of  the  nation,  on  whose  shoulder 
the  government  shall  rest,  whose  name  shall  be  called 
Wonderful,  Counsellor,  Mighty  Potentate,  Everlasting 
Father,  Prince  of  Peace ;  whose  dominion  shall  be 
great,  who  shall  fix  and  establish  the  throne  and  king- 
dom of  David,  through  justice  and  equity  for  ever, 
and  in  peace  without  end  ;  a  lineal  descendant  from 
David,  a  sprout  from  his  root. 

"  The  spirit  of  Jehovah  shall  rest  upon  him; 
"  The  spirit  of  wisdom  and  understanding, 
"  The  spirit  of  counsel  and  might, 
"The  spirit  of  knowledge  and  fear  of  Jehovah. 
"  Righteousness  shall  be  the  girdle  of  his  loins, 
"  And  faithfulness  the  girdle  of  his  reins  ; 


20  THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

"  To  him  shall  the  nation  repair, 
"  And  his  dwelling  place  shall  be  glorious." 
The  second  Isaiah,  supposed  to  have  written  dur- 
ing the  exile  and  not  long  before  its  termination,  as- 
sociates the  hope  of  restoration  and  return  with  king 
Cyrus,  on  whose  clemency  the  Jews  built  great  ex- 
pectations, intimating  even  that  he  might  be  the 
promised  deliverer.  "  He  saith  of  Cyrus :  '  He  is  my 
shepherd ;  he  shall  perform  all  my  pleasure.'  He 
saith  of  Jerusalem:  'She  shall  be  built ; '  and  of  the 
temple  :  '  Her  foundation  shall  be  laid.'  " 

In  the  book  of  Daniel,  by  some  supposed  to  have 
been  written  during  the  captivity,  by  others  as  late  as 
Antiochus  Epiphanes  (B.  C,  175),  the  restoration  is 
described  in  tremendous  language,  and  the  Messiah 
is  portrayed  as  a  supernatural  personage,  in  close 
relation  with  Jehovah  himself.  He  is  spoken  of  as  a 
man,  yet  with  such  epithets  as  only  a  Jewish  imagina- 
tion could  use  in  describing  a  human  being.  Heinrich 
Ewald,  in  the  fifth  volume  of  his  history  of  the  people 
of  Israel,  devotes  twenty-three  pages  to  an  account  of 
the  development  of  the  national  expectation  of  a 
Messia:h,  which  he  calls  "  the  second  preparatory  con- 
dition of  the  consummation  in  Jesus."  After  alluding 
to  Joel's  fervent  anticipation,  and  Isaiah's  description  of 
the  glory  that  was  to  come  through  the  King,  in  whom 
the  spirit  of  pure  divinity  penetrated,  animated  and 
glorified  everything,  so  that  his    human    nature  was 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST.  21 

exalted  to  the  God-like  power,  whose  actions,  speech, 
breath  even  attested  deity,  he  says  :  "  It  is  not  to 
be  questioned  that  this  most  exalted  form  of  the  con- 
ception of  the  anticipated  Messiah  appeared  in  the 
midst  of  the  latter  period  of  this  history,  when  before 
the  great  victory  of  the  Maccabees,  the  eternal  hopes 
of  Israel  were  disturbed  in  their  foundations  along 
with  its  political  prospects,  and  the  advent  of  a  King 
of  David's  line  seemed  wholly  impossible.  At  this 
time  the  deathless  hope  became  more  interior  and 
imperishable  in  this  new,  glorious,  celestial  idea,  and 
the  Messiah  presented  himself  before  prophetic  vision 
as  existing  from  all  eternity,  along  with  the  inde- 
structible prerogatives  of  Israel,  which  were  thought 
of  as  existing  in  an  ideal  realm,  ready  to  manifest 
themselves  visibly  when  the  hour  of  destiny  should 
'  come.  And  we  are  able,  on  historical  grounds,  to 
assume  that  the  deep-souled  author  of  the  book  of 
Daniel,  was  the  man  who  first  sketched  the  splendid 
shape  of  the  Messiah,  and  the  superb  outline  of  his 
kingdom,  in  his  far-reaching,  keen,  suggestive,  lumin- 
ous phrases  ;  while  immediately  after  him  the  first  com- 
poser of  our  book  of  Enoch  developed  the  traits 
furnished  him,  with  an  equal  warmth  of  language  and 
a  spiritual  insight,  not  deeper  perhaps,  but  quieter 
and  more  comprehensive."  Ewald  supposes  the  book 
of  Enoch  to  have  been  written  at  various  intervals 
between  144  and  120  (B.  C.)  and  to  have  been  com- 


22  THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

pleted  in  its  present  form  in  the  first  half  of  the 
century  that  preceeded  the  coming  of  Christ.  The 
book  was  regarded  as  of  authority  by  TertulHan, 
though  Origen  and  Augustine  classed  it  with  apocry- 
phal writings.  In  it  the  figure  of  the  Messiah  is  in- 
vested with  super-human  attributes.  He  is  called 
"  The  Son  of  God,"  "  whose  name  was  spoken  before 
the  sun  was  made  ;  "  ''  who  existed  from  the  beginning 
in  the  presence  of  God,"  that  is,  was  pre-existent.  At 
the  same  time  his  human  characteristics  are  insisted 
on.  He  is  called  "  Son  of  Man,"  even  '*  Son  of 
Woman,"  '' The  Anointed,"  "The  Elect,"  "The 
Righteous  One,"  after  the  style  of  earlier  Hebrew 
anticipation.  The  doctrines  of  angelic  orders  and 
administratio^is,  of  Satan  and  his  legions,  of  resurrec- 
tion and  the  final  judgment,  though  definitely  shaped, 
perhaps  by  association  with  Persian  mythologies,  lay 
concealed  in  possibility  within  the  original  thought  of 
ultimate  supremacy  which  worked  so  long  and  so 
actively,  though  so  obscurely,  in  the  mind  of  the 
Jewish  race. 

The  books  of  Maccabees,  belonging,  according  to 
Ewald,  to  the  last  half  century  before  Christ,  contain 
significant  hints  of  the  future  beliefs  of  Israel.  In 
the  second  chapter  of  II.  Maccabees,  verses  4-9,  we 
read :  "  It  is  also  found  in  the  records  that  Jeremy 
the  prophet,  being  warned  of  God,  commanded  the 
tabernacle  and  the  ark  to  go  with  him,  as  he  went 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST.         2$ 

forth  into  the  mountain  where  Moses  climbed  up  and 
saw  the  heritage  of  God.  And  when  Jeremy  came 
thither  he  found  a  hollow  cave  wherein  he  laid  the 
tabernacle  and  the  ark  and  the  altar  of  incense,  and 
then  stopped  the  door.  And  some  of  those  that  fol- 
lowed him  came  to  mark  the  way,  but  they  could  not 
find  it  ;  which,  when  Jeremy  perceived,  he  blamed 
them,  saying :  As  for  that  place  it  shall  be  unknown 
until  the  time  that  God  gather  his  people  again  to- 
gether, and  receive  them  unto  mercy.  Then  shall  the 
Lord  show  them  these  things,  and  the  glory  of  the 
Lord  shall  appear,  and  the  cloud  also,  as  it  was  showed 
unto  Moses."  Is  it  a  stretch  of  conjecture  on  the 
tenuous  thread  of  fancy  to  find  this  reappearance 
described  in  Revelations  XL,  19,  in  these  words :  "And 
the  temple  of  God  was  opened  in  heaven,  and  there 
was  seen  in  the  temple  the  ark  of  his  covenant ;  and 
there  were  lightnings,  and  voices,  and  thunder- 
ings,  and  an  earthquake,  and  great  hail  .^  "  In  the 
twenty-first  chapter  the  seer  describes  himself  as 
"  carried  away  in  the  spirit  to  a  great  and  high  moun- 
tain "  and  shown  "  that  great  city  the  Holy  Jerusalem, 
descending  out  of  heaven,  from  God."  And  he  heard 
a  great  voice  out  of  heaven,  saying :  "  Behold,  the 
tabernacle  of  God  is  with  men  ;  He  will  dwell  with 
them,  and  they  shall  be  His  people,  and  God  himself 
shall  be  with  them,  their  God."  The  heavenly  Jeru- 
salem that  came  from  the  clouds  is  the  heavenly  city, 


24  THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

the  germ  whereof  was  carried  up  and  hidden  in  the 
cloud  by  Jeremy,  the  prophet.  The  apocryphal  books 
of  the  Old  Testament  lodge  the  ancient  Hebraic  idea 
in  the  very  heart  of  the  New. 

The  earliest  phases  of  the  Messianic  hope  were 
the  most  exalted  in  spirituality.  As  the  fortunes  of 
the  people  became  entangled  with  those  of  other 
states,  and  the  heavy  hand  of  foreign  oppression  was 
laid  upon  them,  the  anticipation  lost  its  religious  and 
assumed  a  political  character.  The  Messiah  assumed 
the  aspect  of  a  temporal  prince,  no  other  conception 
of  him  meeting  the  requirements  of  the  time.  The 
dark  days  had  come  again,  and  were  more  threatening 
than  ever.  Sixty-three  years  before  the  birth  of 
Jesus,  Pompey  the  Great,  returning  from  the  East, 
flushed  with  victory,  approached  Jerusalem.  The 
city  shut  its  gates  against  him,  but  the  resistance, 
though  stubborn,  was  overcome  at  last,  and  Judaea 
was,  with  the  rest  of  the  world,  swept  into  the  mass 
of  the  Roman  empire.  The  conqueror,  proud  but 
magnanimous,  spared  the  people  the  last  humiliation. 
He  respected  no  national  scruples,  perhaps  made  a 
point  of  disregarding  them  ;  he  even  penetrated  into 
the  Holy  of  Holies,  a  piece  of  sacrilegious  audacity 
that  no  Gentile  had  ventured  on  before  him ;  but  he 
was  considerate  of  the  national  spirit  in  other  respects, 
and  left  the  State,  in  semblance  at  least,  existing. 
He  quelled  the  factions  that  distracted  the  country,. 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST.         2$ 

repaired  the  ruin  caused  in  the  city  by  the  siege, 
restored  the  injured  temple,  and  departed  leaving  the 
country  in  the  hands  of  native  rulers,  the  Empire 
being  thrown  into  the  background.  In  the  back- 
ground, however,  it  lurked,  a  vast  power,  holding 
Judasa  dependent  and  tributary.  The  Jewish  state 
was  closely  bounded  and  sharply  defined ;  a  portion 
of  its  wealth  was  absorbed  in  taxes.  An  iron  arm 
repressed  the  insurgent  fanaticism  that  ever  and  anon 
broke  out  in  zeal  for  Jehovah.  The  loyalty  that  was 
kept  alive  by  religious  traditions  and  was  only  another 
name  for  religious  enthusiasm,  was  not  allowed  ex- 
pression. Still  the  even  pressure  of  imperial  power 
was  not  cruelly  felt,  and  by  the  better  portion  of  the 
people  was  preferred  to  ceaseless  discord  and  anarchy. 
The  lower  orders,  easily  roused  to  fanaticism,  pro- 
voked the  Roman  rule  to  more  evident  and  stringent 
dominion.  Julius  Caesar,  passing  by  on  his  way  to 
Egypt,  paused,  saw  the  situation,  and  increased  the 
authority  of  Antipater,  his  representative,  whom  he 
raised  to  the  dignity  of  Procurator  of  Judaea.  The 
rule  of  Antipater  was,  in  the  main,  just,  and  com- 
mended itself  to  the  rational  friends  of  the  Jewish 
State.  He  rebuilt  the  wall  which  the  assaults  of  war 
had  thrown  down,  pacified  the  country,  and  earned  by 
his  general  moderation  the  praise  of  the  patriotic. 
But  Antipater,  besides  being  the  representativ^e  of  a 
Gentile  despotism,  was  of  foreign  race,   an  Idumaean, 


26         THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

of  the  abhorred  stock  of  Edom.  Spiritual  acquies- 
cence in  the  rule  of  such  a  prince  was  not  to  be  ex- 
pected. 

Antipater  was  the  founder  of  the  Herodian  dy- 
nasty. Whatever  may  have  been  the  ulterior  designs 
which  the  princes  of  this  dynasty  had  at  heart,  whether 
they  meditated  an  Eastern  Empire  centering  in  Pales- 
tine, Jerusalem  being  the  great  metropolis,  a  purpose 
kept  secret  in  their  breasts  till  such  time  as  events 
might  justify  them  in  throwing  off  the  dominion  of 
Rome  which  they  had  used  as  an  assistance  in  their 
period  of  weakness  ;  or  whether  they  hoped  to  com- 
bine Church  and  State  in  Judasa  in  such  a  way  that 
each  might  support  the  other  ;  or  whether,  in  their 
passion  for  splendor,  they  plotted  the  subversion  ■  of 
religion  by  the  pomp  of  pagan  civilization  ;  the 
practical  result  of  their  dominion  was  the  exasperation 
of  the  Hebrew  spirit. 

Herod,  the  son  of  Antipater,  deserved,  on  several 
accounts,  the  title  of  Great  that  history  has  bestowed 
on  him.  He  was  great  as  a  soldier,  great  as  a  diplo- 
matist, great  as  an  administrator.  Made  king  in  his 
youth  ;  established  in  his  power  by  the  Roman  senate  ; 
confirmed  in  his  state  by  Augustus ;  entrusted  with 
all  but  unlimited  powers  ;  absolved  from  the  duty  to 
pay  tribute  to  the  empire  ;  his  long  reign  of  more 
than  forty  years  was  of  great  moment  to  the  Jewish 
state.     Internally  he  corrupted  it,  but  externally  he 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST.         2/ 

beautified  it.  The  superb  temple,  one  of  the  wonders 
and  ornaments  of  the  Eastern  world,  was  of  his  build- 
ing, and  so  delicately  as  well  as  munificently  was  it 
done,  that  the  shock  of  removing  the  old  edifice  to 
make  room  for  the  new  was  quite  avoided.  He 
adorned  the  city  besides,  with  sumptuous  monuments 
and  structures.  His  palaces,  theatres,  tombs  were  of 
unexampled  magnificence.  Nor  was  his  attention 
confined  to  the  city  of  Jerusalem ;  Caesarea  was  en- 
riched with  marble  docks  and  palaces  ;  Joppa  was 
made  handsome  ;  Antonia  was  fortified.  Games  and 
feasts  relieved  the  monotony  of  Eastern  life,  and 
gratified  the  Greek  taste  for  splendid  gaiety.  But 
this  was  all  in  the  interest  of  paganism.  If  he  rebuilt 
the  temple  at  Jerusalem,  he  rebuilt  also  the  temple  at 
Samaria.  If  he  made  superb  the  worship  of  Jehovah 
in  the  holy  city,  he  encouraged  heathen  worship  in 
the  new  city  of  Caesarea.  This  introduction  of  Roman 
customs  deeply  offended  the  religious  sense  of  the 
nation.  Outside  the  city  walls  he  had  an  amphi- 
theatre for  barbarous  games.  Inside,  he  had  a 
theatre  for  Greek  plays  and  dances.  The  castle,  An- 
tonia, well  garrisoned,  a  castle  and  a  palace  com- 
bined, commanded  the  temple  square.  The  Roman 
eagle,  fixed  upon  the  front  of  the  temple,  was  an 
affront  that  no  magnificence  or  munificence  could 
atone  for.  His  private  life  was  not  calculated  to 
win    the   favor  of  a  severely  puritanical  people,  or 


28  THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

persuade  them  of  the  advantage  of  being  under  im- 
perial dominion.  The  Greek  legends  on  his  coins, 
his  ostentatious  encouragement  of  foreign  usages  and 
people,  his  rude  treatment  of  Hebrew  prejudices,  and 
his  haughty  bearing  towards  the  ''  first  families"  added 
bitterness  to  the  misery  of  foreign  sway. 

Yet  the  situation  became  worse  at  his  death.  For 
his  successors  had  his  audacity  without  his  prudence, 
and  were  disposed,  as  he  was,  to  be  oppressive,  without 
being,  as  he  was,  magnificent.  He  did  keep  the 
nation  at  peace  by  his  tyranny,  if  by  his  cruelty  he 
undermined  security  and  provoked  the  disaffection 
that  made  peace  impossible  after  him.  The  last  acts 
ascribed  to  him,  the  order  that  the  most  eminent  men 
of  the  nation  should  be  put  to  death  at  his  decease, 
and  that  the  infants  of  Bethlehem,  the  city  of  David, 
should  be  massacred,  attest  more  than  the  vulgar 
belief  in  his  cruelty ;  they  bear  witness  to  a  convic- 
tion that  the  spirit  of  the  people  was  not  dead,  that  the 
despotism  of  Rome  had  failed  to  crush  the  hope  of 
Israel.  The  death  of  Herod,  which  occurred  when 
Jesus  was  a  little  child,  was  followed  by  frightful  social 
and  political  convulsions.  For  two  or  three  years  all 
the  elements  of  disorder  were  afoot.  Between  pre- 
tenders to  the  vacant  throne  of  Herod,  and  aspirants 
to  the  Messianic  throne  of  David,  Judaea  was  torn  and 
devastated.  Revolt  assumed  the  wildest  form,  the 
higher  enthusiasm  of  faith  yielded  to  the  lower  fury 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST.  29 

of  fanaticism  ;  the  celestial  visions  of  a  kingdom  of 
heaven  were  completely  banished  by  the  smoke  and 
flame  of  political  hate.  Claimant  after  claimant  of 
the  dangerous  supremacy  of  the  Messiah  appeared, 
pitched  a  camp  in  the  wilderness,  raised  the  banner, 
gathered  a  force,  was  attacked,  defeated,  banished  or 
crucified ;  but  the  frenzy  did  not  abate.  Conservative 
Jews,  in  their  despair,  sent  an  embassy  to  Rome, 
praying  for  tranquility  under  the  equitable  reign  of 
law.  They  wanted  no  king  like  Herod,  or  of  Herod's 
line  ;  they  prayed  to  be  delivered  from  all  kings  who 
were  not  themselves  subject  to  imperial  responsibility. 
The  governor  of  Syria  they  would  acknowledge.  The 
petition  was  not  gran-ted.  Herod's  three  sons,  Arche- 
laus,  Antipas  and  Philip  divided  their  father's  domi- 
nion between  them ;  Judaea  was  made  a  Roman 
province,  subject  to  taxation  like  any  other. 

The  best  of  the  three  kings  was  Philip,  who  received 
as  his  portion  the  North  Eastern  division,  the  most 
remote  from  the  centre  of  disturbance.  He  was  a 
quiet,  well-disposed  man,  who  staid  at  home,  attended 
to  his  own  business,  developed  the  resources  of  his 
dominion,  and  showed  himself  a  father  to  his  people. 
Csesarea  Philippi  was  built  by  him  ;  Bethsaida  was 
rebuilt.  Antipas,  called  also  Herod,  was  appointed 
ruler  over  Galilee  and  Peraea  ;  a  cunning,  unprincipled 
man,  nicknamed  "  the  fox  ;  "  despotic  and  wilful,  like 
his  father,  and  like  his  father,  fond  of  display.     He 


30  THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

built  Dio  Coesarea,  as  it  was  afterwards  called,  and 
Tiberias,  on  the  sea  of  Galilee.  He  too  was  a  good 
deal  of  a  pagan,  and  deeply  outraged  the  Hebrew  con- 
science by  repudiating  his  wife,  the  daughter  of 
Aretas,  an  Arabian  king,  and  marrying  the  wife  of 
his  half-brother,  Philip.  He  was  an  oriental  despot, 
superstitious,  luxurious,  sensual,  wilful  and  weak ;  quite 
destitute  of  the  statesmanship  required  in  the  ruler 
of  a  turbulent  province,  where  special  care  and  skill 
were  necessary  to  reconcile  the  order  of  civil  govern- 
ment with  the  aspiration  after  theocratic  supremacy. 
The  spiritual  fear,  which  compelled  him  to  stand  in 
awe  of  religious  enthusiasm,  put  him  on  more  than  half 
earnest  quest  of  prophetic  messengers,  made  him  curi- 
ous about  miracles  and  signs,  and  anxious  not  to  offend 
needlessly  the  higher  powers,  was  incessantly  at  war 
with  the  self-regarding  policy  which  resented  the 
smallest  encroachment  on  his  own  authority.  To 
maintain  his  ducal  state,  and  meet  the  cost  of  his  pub- 
lic and  private  extravagance,  he  imposed  heavy  taxes, 
and  collected  them  in  an  unscrupulous  fashion,  which 
made  him  and  the  empire  he  represented  extremely 
unpopular.  Jealous  of  his  prerogative,  and  ambitious 
of  regal  rank,  he  brought  himself  into  disagreeable 
collision  with  the  aspirations  of  the  people  he  gov- 
erned. His  immediate  neighborhood  to  the  centres 
of  Jewish  enthusiasm, — he  lived  in  the  very  heart  of 
it,  for  Galilee  was  the  seat  and  headquarters  of  Hebrew 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST.  3 1 

radicalism — made  his  every  movement  felt.  In  him 
the  spirit  of  the  Roman  empire  was,  in  the  belief  of 
the  people,  incarnate. 

The  oldest  brother,  Archelaus,  held  the  chief 
position,  bore  the  highest  title,  received  the 
largest  tribute,  more  than  a  million  of  dollars, 
and  resided  in  Jiidasa,  nearer  the  political  cen- 
tre of  the  country.  His  reign  was  short.  His 
cruelty  and  lawlessness,  his  disregard  of  private  and 
public  decencies  raised  his  subjects  against  him. 
Augustus,  on  an  appeal  to  Rome  for  redress,  sum- 
moned him  to  his  presence,  listened  to  the  charges 
and  the  defence,  and  banished  him  to  Gaul.  This 
was  in  the  year  6  of  our  era,  only  three  years  after  the 
death  of  Herod.  The  reign  of  his  brothers,  Philip 
and  Antipas,  covered  the  period  of  the  life  of  Jesus. 

The  "  taxing "  which  excited  the  wildest  uproar 
against  the  Roman  power,  took  place  at  this  period, 
—A.  D.  7,  —  under  Cyrenius  or  Quirinus,  governor 
of  Syria;  it  was  the  first  general  tax  laid  directly  by 
the  imperial  government,  and  it  raised  a  furious  storm 
of  opposition.  The  Hebrew  spirit  was  stung  into 
exasperation  ;  the  puritans  of  the  nation,  the  enthu- 
siasts, fanatics,  the  zealots  of  the  law,  the  literal 
constructionists  of  prophecy,  appealed  to  the  national 
temper,  revived  the  national  faith,  and  fanned  into 
flame  the  combustible  elements  that  smouldered  in 
the  bosom  of  the  race.     A  native   Hebrew  party  was 


32  THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

formed,  on  the  idea  that  Judea  was  for  the  Jews  ; 
that  the  rule  of  the  Gentile  was  ungodly ;  that  all 
support  given  to  it  was  disloyalty  to  Jehovah.  The 
popular  feeling  broke  out  in  open  rebellion  ;  the  fana- 
ticism of  the  "zealots"  affected  the  whole  nation.  Who- 
ever had  the  courage  to  draw  the  sword  in  the  name 
of  the  Messiah  was  sure  of  a  following,  though  there 
was  no  chance  that  the  uprising  would  end  in  any- 
thing but  blood  and  worse  oppression.  The  most 
extravagant  expectations  were  cherished  of  miraculous 
furtherance  and  superhuman  aid.  The  popular  ima- 
gination, inflamed  by  rhetoric  taken  from  Daniel, 
Enoch,  and  other  apocryphal  books,  went  beyond  all 
sober  limits.  The  primary  conditions  of  divine  assis- 
tance, sanctity,  fidelity,  patience,  meekness  of  trust, 
reverence  for  the  Lord's  will,  were  neglected  and  for- 
gotten ;  the  promise  alone  was  kept  in  view  ;  the 
word  of  Jehovah  was  alone  remembered ;  his  com- 
mand was  disregarded.  But  the  Lord's  promise  was 
not  kept.  Every  new  uprising  was  followed  by  fresh 
impositions  ;  the  detestable  dominion  was  fastened 
upon  the  people  more  hopelessly  than  ever.  The 
temper  of  the  domination  became  bitter  and  con- 
temptuous, as  it  had  not  been  before.  The  name 
of  Jew  was  synonymous  to  Roman  ears  with  vulgar 
fanaticism. 

In  place  of  Archelaus,  Augustus  sent  procurators, 
as    they  were    called,    Coponius,   Marcus  Ambivius, 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST.  33 

Annius  Rufus.  The  country  was  generally  tranquil 
under  their  short  administrations  ;  but  the  internal 
feuds  were  not  pacified.  The  enthusiasm  of  the  Jews 
provoked  the  malignity  of  the  Samaritans,  who,  having 
been  longer  wonted  to  foreign  rule,  less  resented  it, 
and  were  not  unwilling  to  put  themselves  in  league 
with  the  despot  to  crush  an  ancient  foe.  It  is  related 
that  during  the  administration  of  Coponius,  some  evil- 
minded  Samaritans,  stole  into  the  open  temple  of 
Jerusalem,  on  the  passover  night,  and  threw  human 
bones  into  the  holy  place.  The  building  was  dese- 
crated for  the  season  and  must  be  purified  by  special 
sacrifices  before  it  could  be  used  again.  The  das- 
tardly act  was  associated,  in  the  minds  of  the  people, 
with  the  insulting  degradations  of  the  Gentile  power, 
and  the  spirit  of  rebellion  was  exasperated. 

Augustus  died  A.  D.  14,  and  was  succeeded  by 
Tiberius,  whose  policy  towards  Judaea,  was  not  op- 
pressive so  much  as  contemptuous.  He  was  too 
merciful  to  the  ''  sick  man  "  to  drive  away  the  carrion 
flies  that  were  already  surfeited,  and  let  in  a  fresh 
swarm  of  blood-suckers.  His  vicero3^s  enjoyed  a  long 
term  of  office  and  plundered  at  leisure.  Pontius 
Pilate  was  appointed  to  this  position  in  the  year 
26,  about  four  years  before  the  public  appearance 
of  Jesus,  and  was  kept  there  till  the  year  37. 
He  was,  in  many  respects,  a  good  administrator: 
overbearing,  of  course,  for  he  was  a  Roman  ;  his  sub- 

3 


34  THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

jects  were  by  nature,  irritating,  and  by  reputation, 
factious.  He  was  greedy  of  gain,  though  not  rapa- 
cious or  extortionate ;  not  a  man  of  high  principle  ; 
not  a  sympathetic  or  sentimental  man,  cold,  indiffer- 
ent, apathetic  rather ;  still,  moderate,  and,  on  the 
whole,  just ;  liable  to  mistakes  through  stubbornness 
and  imprudence,  but  neither  cruel,  jealous,  nor  vindic- 
tive. The  reputation  of  being  all  these  was  easily 
earned  by  a  man  in  his  position ;  for  the  Jews  were 
sensitive,  not  easily  satisfied,  and  disposed  to  con- 
strue unfavorably  any  acts  of  a  foreign  ruler.  As 
viceroys  went,  Pilate  was  not  a  bad  man,  nor  was  he 
a  bad  specimen  of  his  class.  The  smallest  impru- 
dence might  precipitate  riot  in  Jerusalem.  On  one 
occasion,  the  troops  from  Samaria,  coming  to  winter 
at  Jerusalem,  were  allowed  to  carry,  emblazoned  on 
their  banner,  the  image  of  the  emperor,  to  which  the 
Roman  soldiers  attached  a  sacred  character.  The 
sight  of  the  idolatrous  standard  on  the  morning  of 
its  first  exhibition  created  great  excitement.  A  riot 
broke  forth  at  once  ;  a  deputation  waited  on  the  gov- 
ernor at  Csesarea,  to  protest  against  the  outrage  and 
demand  the  removal  of  the  sacrilege.  Pilate  firmly 
withstood  the  supplicants,  thinking  the  honor  of  the 
emperor  at  stake.  Five  days  and  five  nights  the  pe- 
titioners stayed,  pressing  their  demand.  On  the  sixth  , 
day,  the  governor,  wearied  by  their  importunity  and 
resolved  to  put  an  end  to  the  annoyance,  had  his 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST.  35 

judgment-seat  placed  on  the  race-course,  ordered 
troops  to  lie  concealed  in  the  near  neighborhood,  and 
awaited  the  visit  of  the  Jews.  The  deputation  came 
as  usual  with  their  complaint ;  at  a  signal,  the  soldiers 
appeared  and  surrounded  the  suppliants,  while  the 
procurator  threatened  them  with  instant  death,  if 
they  did  not  at  once  retire  to  their  homes.  The  stern 
puritans,  nothing  daunted,  threw  themselves  at  his 
feet,  stretched  out  their  necks,  and  cried :  '  It  were 
better  to  die  than  to  submit  to  insult  to  our  holy 
laws.'  The  astonished  governor  yielded,  and  the  in- 
signia were  removed. 

On  another  occasion  Pilate  was  made  sensible  of 
the  inflammable  character  of  the  people  with  whom  he 
had  to  deal.     He  had  allowed  the  construction,  per- 
haps only  the  restoration,  of  a  costly  aqueduct  to  sup- 
ply the  city,  but  more  especially  the  temple  buildings, 
with    pure  water.       It  was  built  at   the  instance  of 
the  Sanhedrim  and  the  priests,  to  whom  an  abundance 
of  water  was  a  prime  necessity.     In  consideration  of 
this  fact,  as  well  as  of  the  circumstance  that  the  benefit 
of  the  improvement  accrued  wholly  to  the  Jewish  peo- 
ple, it  seemed  to  Pilate  no  more  than  just  that  the  ex- 
pense should  be  defrayed  from  moneys  in  the  temple 
treasury  that  were  set  apart  for  such  purposes.     There 
is  no  evidence  that  his  action  was  unreasonable  or  his 
method  of  pursuing  it  offensive  ;  but  clamors  at  once 
arose  against  his  project,  and  on  occasion  of  his  com- 


36  TEE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

iiig  to  Jerusalem  a  tumultuous  crowd  pressed  on  him, 
and  insulting  epithets  were  flung  at  him  from  the 
rabble.  To  still  and  scatter  them  soldiers  were  sent, 
in  ordinary  dress,  with  clubs  in  their  hands,  their 
weapons  being  concealed,  to  overawe  the  malcontents. 
This  failing,  and  the  tumult  increasing,  the  signal  of 
attack  was  given  ;  the  soldiers  fell  to  with  a  will ; 
blood  was  shed  ;  innocent  and  guilty  suffered  alike. 
As  this  occurred  on  a  feast  day,  near  the  Pra^torium, 
and  not  far  from  the  temple  itself,  it  is  quite  possible 
that  the  sacred  precincts  were  disturbed  by  the  uproar, 
and  that  the  stain  of  blood  touched  consecrated 
pavement.  The  popular  mind,  excited  and  maddened, 
seized  on  the  occurrence,  represented  it  as  a  deliberate 
affront  on  the  part  of  the  governor,  and  charged  him 
with  mingling  the  blood  of  innocent  people  with  the 
sacrifices  they  were  offering  to  Jehovah.  It  is  not 
unlikely  that  the  "  tower  of  Siloam  "  which  fell, 
crushing  eighteen  citizens,  was  a  part  of  this  very 
aqueduct  wall,  and  its  fall  may  have  been  and  probably 
was,  regarded  as  a  judgment  on  the  work  and  on  all 
who  countenanced  it.  That  it  made  a  profound  im- 
pression on  the  popular  imagination  appears  in  the 
gospel  narratives  written  many  years  afterwards. 
Ewald  supposes  that  this  accident  happened  at  an 
early  stage  of  the  work,  and  was  a  leading  cause  of  the 
fanatical  outbreak  that  expressed  the  popular  dis- 
content. 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST.  3/ 

Philo  tells  a  story  of  Pilate's  administration,  so 
characteristic  that  it  deserves  repeating,  although,  as 
Ewald  remarks,  it  may  be  another  version  of  the  inci- 
dent of  the  standards.  Ewald,  however,  is  inclined  to 
think  it  a  distinct  occurrence.  According  to  this 
narrative,  Pilate,  in  honor  of  the  emperor,  and  in  ac- 
cordance with  a  custom  prevalent  throughout  the 
empire,  especially  in  the  East,  caused  to  be  set  up  in 
a  conspicuous  place  in  Jerusalem,  two  votive  shields 
of  gold,  one  bearing  the  name  of  Tiberius,  the  other 
his  own.  The  shields  had  nothing  on  them  but  the 
names  ;  no  image,  no  inscription,  no  idolatrous  em- 
blem, simply  the  two  names.  But  even  this  was 
resented  by  the  fiery  populace  who  could  not  endure 
the  lightest  intimation  of  their  subjection  to  a  Gentile 
power.  The  indignation  reached  the  aristocracy  ;  at 
least,  the  force  of  the  movement  did ;  and  the  sons  of 
Herod,  all  four  of  them,  accompanied  by  members  of 
the  first  families  and  city  officials,  formally  waited  on 
Pilate  to  demand  the  removal  of  the  tablets,  and  on 
his  refusal  went  to  Rome  to  lay  the  matter  before 
Tiberius,  who  granted,  on  his  part,  the  request.  Be 
the  incident  as  recorded  true  or  not,  the  record  of  it 
by  so  near  a  contemporary  and  so  clear  a  judge  as 
Philo,  throws  a  strong  light  on  the  situation,  brings 
the  tvvo  parties  into  bold  relief,  as  they  confront  one 
another,  and  affords  a  glimpse  into  the  secret  workings 
of  Hebrew  political  motives. 


38  THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

The  pressure  of  the  Roman  authority  was  inces- 
sant and  severe,  though  the  apparatus  of  it  was  kept 
in  the  background.  The  governor  held  his  court  and 
head-quarters  at  Caesarea,  a  seaport  town  on  the  Med- 
iterranean, about  mid-way  between  Joppa  on  the 
south,  and  the  promontory  of  Carmel  on  the  north, 
admirably  situated  with  regard  to  Rome,  on  the  one 
side,  and  Palestine  on  the  other.  For  strategic  pur- 
poses the  place  was  well  chosen.  The  military  force 
in  the  country  was  not  large — about  a  thousand  men 
— but  it  was  effectively  disposed.  The  castle  of  Anto- 
nia,  in  the  city  of  Jerusalem,  contained  a  garrison  judi- 
ciously small,  but  sufficient  for  an  exigency.  The  vice- 
roy was  present  in  the  Holy  City  on  public  days  when 
great  assemblages  of  people,  gathered  together  under 
circumstances  provocative  of  insurrection,  required 
closer  watch  than  usual.  He  had  a  residence  there, 
and  a  judgment-seat  on  a  marble  balcony  in  front  of 
the  palace  ;  he  exercised  regal  powers,  held  the  issues 
of  life  and  death,  could  depose  priests  of  any  order ; 
in  short,  ruled  the  subject  people  with  as  much  con- 
sideration as  the  peculiar  circumstances  of  the  case 
demanded,  but  no  more.  The  people  were  never  per- 
mitted to  forget  their  subject  condition.  The  hated 
tax-gatherer  went  his  rounds,  exacting  tribute  to  the 
empire.  The  evolutions  of  soldiers  gave  an  aspect  of 
omnipresence  to  the  foreign  dominion.  The  hope  of 
deliverance  lost  its  spiritual  character,  and  took  on 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST.  39 

decidedly  a  political  shape.  The  anticipation  of  the 
Messiah  became  less  ideal,  but  more  intense.  The 
armed  figure  of  king  David  haunted  the  dreams  of 
fanatics  ;  even  the  angels  that  hovered  before  the  im- 
agination of  gentler  enthusiasts  wore  breast-plates 
and  had  swords  in  their  hands.  The  kingdom  looked 
for  was  no  reign  of  truth,  mercy,  and  kindness,  but  a 
reign  of  force,  for  force  alone  could  meet  force. 


III. 

THE    SECTS. 

The  popular  aspect  of  the  Messianic  hope  was  polit- 
ical, not  religious  or  moral.  The  name  "  Messiah,"  was 
synonymous  with  "  King  of  the  Jews  ; ''  it  suggested 
political  designs  and  aspirations.  Th.  assumption 
of  that  character  by  any  individual  drew  on  him  the 
vigilance  of  the  police.  In  this  condition  of  affairs 
the  public  sentiment  was  divided  between  the  Con- 
servatives and  the  Radicals.  The  first  party  com- 
prised the  wealthy,  settled,  permanent,  cautious  people 
whose  patriotism  was  tinged  with  prudent  reflection. 
They  saw  the  hopelessness  of  revolt,  its  inevitable 
failure,  and  the  worse  tyranny  that  would  follow  its 
bloody  suppression  ;  they  put  generous  interpretations 
on  the  acts  and  intentions  of  the  imperial  power,  did 
justice  and  a  little  more  than  literal  justice  to  acts 
of  clemency  or  forbearance,  appreciated  the  value  of 
the  Roman  supremacy  in  preserving  internal  quiet 
and  keeping  other  plunderers  at  a  distance  ;  and  had 
confidence  that  patience  and  diplomacy  would  accom- 
plish what  force  could   not  undertake.     They  were 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST.  4I 

careful,  therefore,  to  maintain  a  good  understanding 
with  the  powers  that  were,  and  frowned  on  all  at- 
tempts to  revive  the  national  spirit. 

The  conservatives  were  of  all  shades  of  opinion, 
and  of  all  parties  ;  the  radicals  were,  as  is  usually  the 
case,  confined  mostly  to  those  who  had  little  tJ  lose, 
either  of  wealth,  reputation,  or  social  position.  The 
supremacy  of  Israel,  the  restoration  of  the  Jewish 
Commonwealth,  the  overthrow  of  the  wealthy  and 
powerful,  the  reinstatement  of  the  poor,  the  unlet- 
tered, the  weak,  the  suffering,  the  downtrodden  "  chil- 
dren of  Abraham,"  composed  the  group  of  ideas  which 
made  up  the  sum  of  their  intellectual  life.  The  Ro- 
man dominion  was  abhorred  not  because  it  was  cruel, 
but  because  it  was  sacrilegious.  Diplomacy,  with 
these,  was  another  word  for  time-serving  ;  policy  an- 
other phrase  for  cowardice  ;  they  detested  prudence 
as  ignoble  ;  they  distrusted  conciliation  as  ap'ostacy  ; 
they  put  the  worst  construction  on  the  fairest  seem- 
ing deeds,  dreading  nothing  so  much  as  agreement 
between  the  chief  men  of  Israel  and  the  minions  of 
the  empire. 

The  educated  and  responsible  classes  were  chiefly 
conservative.  No  sect  was  so  entirely,  for  no  sect 
comprised  all  of  these  classes  ;  but  some  sects  were 
naturally  more  conservative  than  others.  The  Sad- 
ducees  were,  on  the  whole,  the  most  so  ;  not  by  reason 
of  their  creed  particularly,  but  through  the  influence 


42  THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

of  their  historical  antecedents.  After  the  capture  of 
Jerusalem  by  Ptolemy,  320  B.  C,  some  hundred 
thousand  Jews  went  to  Egypt  and  attained  conse- 
quence there ;  had  their  own  religious  rites  and  tem- 
ple. Contact  with  Greek  thought  and  life  there  en- 
larged their  minds.  Their  old-fashioned  Hebraism 
seemed  strait  and  prim  by  the  side  of  the  splendid 
exuberance  of  Gentile  life  in  Alexandria.  Jerusalem 
looked,  in  the  distance,  like  a  provincial  town  ;  the 
wealth  of  pagan  literature  dwarfed  their  Scriptures  to 
the  dimensions  of  a  single  deep  but  narrow  tradition. 
They  were  Jews  still,  but  bigoted  Jews  no  longer. 
How  unreasonable  seemed  now  the  prejudices  of  ex- 
clusive race!  how  unwise  the  attempts  to  maintain 
peculiarities  of  custom  !  how  fanatical  the  efforts  to 
impose  them  upon  others  !  The  world  was  large  and 
various  :  the  order  of  the  world  followed  the  track  of 
no  one  lawgiver,  prophet  or  saint. 

The  sect  of  Sadducees  is  supposed  to  have  risen 
from  this  pagan  soil.  It  was  a  sect  of  rationahsts, 
free-thinkers,  skeptics,  eclectics  ;  Jews,  but  not  dog- 
matists of  any  school.  They  believed  in  culture  and 
general  progress,  and  had  the  characteristic  traits  of 
men  so  believing.  They  were  cool,  unimpassioned, 
scientific  ;  sentimentalism  they  abjured  ;  enthusiasm 
to  them  was  folly.  They  were  glad  to  graft  Greek 
culture  on  Hebrew  thought,  and  would  not  have 
been  sorry  to   see  the   small  Hebrew  state  absorbed 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST.  43 

by  some  world-wide  civilization.  Moses  they  revered, 
and  his  law ;  but  the  aftergrowth,  priestly  and  pro- 
phetic, they  discarded.  No  doubt  they  thought  the 
priests  superstitious,  the  prophets  mad,  the  restora- 
tionists  a  set  of  fools,  the  vision  of  Israel's  future 
supremacy  the  mischievous  nightmare  of  distempered 
minds.  As  a  literary  class  the  Sadducees  were  few 
and  select  ;  aristocratic  in  taste,  supercilious  in  man- 
ners. They  were  in  favor  with  the  governors  placed 
over  the  people  by  Roman  authority,  on  account  of 
their  cultured  moderation  ;  and  in  return  for  social 
and  political  support,  received  offices  in  the  State, 
and  even  in  the  Church.  Caiaphas,  the  high  priest 
in  the  time  of  Jesus,  was  a  Sadducee,  and  was  raised 
to  that  dignity  by  Valerius  Gratus,  Pilate's  predeces- 
sor in  office. 

The  Sadducee  was  a  man  of  the  world  ;  not  in  the 
bad  sense,  but  in  the  strict  sense  of  the  term.  Dis- 
believing in  immortality,  he  confined  his  view  to  the 
possibilities  of  the  time  ;  disbelieving  in  angels  and 
special  providences,  he  put  confidence  in  temporal 
powers ;  disbelieving  the  doctrine  of  divine  decrees 
and  manifest  destiny,  he  pursued  the  calculations  of 
policy  and  held  himself  within  the  reasonable  compass 
of  human  motives.  Compromisers  on  principle,  the 
Sadducees  were  unpopular  in  a  community  of  earnest 
Jews.  They  bore  bad  names,  were  called  epicureans, 
sensualists,  materialists,  cold-blooded  aristocrats,  allies 


44  THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

of  despotism  ;  but  they  deserved  these  abusive  appel- 
lations no  more  than  men  of  the  same  description  in 
modern  states  deserve  them.  The  abusive  epithet  was 
one  of  the  penalties  they  had  to  pay  for  the  intel- 
lectual and  social  consequence  they  enjoyed. 

The  Pharisees  were  more  numerous,  more  com- 
monplace and  more  popular.  They  were,  in  fact,  the 
great  popular  sect.  They  were  of  more  recent  origin 
than  the  Sadducees,  their  history  going  back  only 
about  a  century  and  a  half  before  the  time  of  Jesus. 
Their  name,  which  means  "  exclusive  "  or  "  elect," 
"set  apart,"  sufficiently  indicates  their  character. 
They  were  the  ''strait"  sect;  Hebrews  of  the  He- 
brews ;  Puritans  of  the  Puritans ;  the  quintessence  of 
theocratic  fervor  and  patriotic  faith  ;  the  true  Israel. 
Strict  constructionists  they  were  ;  friends  to  the  law 
and  the  testimony  ;  worshippers  of  the  letter  and  the 
form  ;  painstaking  preservers  of  every  iota  of  the  writ- 
ten word  ;  firm  believers  in  the  destiny  of  Israel,  in 
the  special  providence  that  could  accomplish  it,  in  the 
angelic  powers  whose  agency  might  be  needed  to  ful- 
fil it,  in  the  future  life  when  it  was  to  be  fulfilled. 
They  held  to  the  law,  and  they  held  to  the  prophets, 
major  and  minor ;  they  could  divide  the  word  of  the 
Lord  to  a  hair. 

The  Pharisees  have  usually  been  called  a  sect ; 
they  were  not  so  much  a  sect  as  a  party.  Church 
and  State    being   one    in   the   conception   of  a  the- 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST.  45 

ocracy,  or  government  of  God,  the  devotee  and  the 
politician  were  the  same  person  ;  the  dogmatist  was 
the  democrat;  the  man  of  narrowest  creed  was  the 
man  of  widest  sympathies  ;  the  most  exclusive  theo- 
logian was  the  most  popular  partisan.  To  keep  Israel 
true  to  the  faith,  and,  in  consequence  of  that  to  save 
it  from  political  decline,  was,  from  the  first,  the  Pha- 
risee's mission.  He  never  lost  it  from  his  view.  His 
eye  was  steadily  fixed  on  the  issues  of  the  day,  as 
they  involved  the  destinies  of  the  future.  In  order 
that  he  might  be  a  patriot,  he  was  anxious  to  preserve 
unimpaired  his  puritanism  ;  and  in  order  that  he 
might  preserve  his  puritanism  unimpaired,  he  attended 
diligently  to  the  duties  of  patriotism. 

The  Pharisee  cherished  the  Messianic  hope.  It 
was  part  of  his  faith  in  the  destiny  of  Israel,  and  the 
great  practical  justification  of  his  behef  in  the  resur- 
rection of  the  dead  ;  he  believed  in  personal  immor- 
tality, because  he  believed  in  the  Christ  who  would 
come  to  bestow  it.  It  was  an  article  of  the  patriot's 
creed  ;  the  joy  of  the  Messianic  felicity  being  the 
reward  for  fidelity  to  Israel.  The  hope  presented  to 
him  its  political  aspect,  that  being  the  aspect  really 
fascinating  to  patriotic  contemplation.  The  moral 
and  spiritual  aspects  were  incidental  to  this.  In  fact 
the  moral  and  spiritual  aspects  were  scarcely  thought 
of.  It  was  reserved  for  Christianity  to  develop  these 
when  the  literal  doctrine  had  lost  its  interest,  and  the 


46  THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

heavenly  kingdom  had  been  transported  from  the 
earth  to  the  skies.  A  thousand  and  a  half  of  years 
have  not  spiritualized  the  belief  with  the  multitude. 
Still  the  Pharisaic  doctrine  is  the  accepted  faith  ;  a 
purely  rational  human  faith  in  immortality  is  enter- 
tained by  the  philosophical  few.  The  Pharisees  con- 
stituted a  sort  of  Young  Men's  Hebrew  Association, 
loosely  organized  for  the  maintenance  of  the  faith 
and  the  fulfilment  of  the  destiny  of  Israel. 

But  while  all  Pharisees  shared  the  same  general 
beliefs,  all  were  not  of  the  same  mind  on  questions  of 
immediate  policy.  They  were  divided  into  conserva- 
tive and  radical  wings.  The  conservatives,  whether 
from  temperament,  position,  conviction,  or  selfish 
interest,  deprecated  sudden  or  violent  measures  which 
would  defeat  their  own  ends  and  make  a  bad  state  of 
things  worse.  They  counselled  moderation,  patience, 
acquiescence  in  the  actual  and  inevitable.  They  dis- 
countenanced the  open  expressions  of  discontent,  ad- 
vised submission  to  law,  and  preached  the  duty  of 
strict  religious  observance  as  the  proper  preparation, 
on  their  part,  for  the  providential  advent  of  the  Son 
of  Man.  No  doubt  this  policy  was  prompted  in  many 
cases  by  timidity,  and  in  many  cases  by  time-serving 
craft ;  but  no  doubt  it  was  in  many  cases  suggested 
by  sober  statesmanship.  The  conservative  Pharisee 
was  even  less  popular  than  the  Sadducee  ;  for  the 
Sadducee  pretended  to  no  belief  in  Israel's  providen- 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST.  4/ 

tial  destiny,  and  to  no  sympathy  with  Israel's  Mes- 
sianic hope  ;  while  the  Pharisee  made  conspicuous 
protestation  of  orthodox  zeal.  Evidence  of  the  popu- 
lar dislike  of  the  conservative  Pharisee  abounds.  He 
was  looked  upon  as  a  renegade.  He  was  called  pre- 
tender and  hypocrite,  wolf  in  sheep's  clothing,  a 
whited  sepulchre.  He  was  ridiculed  and  lampooned. 
All  manner  of  heartlessness  was  charged  against  him, 
as  being  a  monster  of  inhumanity.  "  The  Talmud," 
says  Deutsch,  "  inveighs  even  more  bitterly  and  caus- 
tically than  the  New  Testament,  against  what  it  calls 
'  the  plague  of  Pharisaism  ; '  '  the  dyed  ones,'  '  who  do 
evil  deeds,  like  Zimri,  and  require  a  goodly  reward, 
like  Phinehas  ; '  '  who  preach  beautifully,  but  behave 
unbeautifully.'  "  Their  artificial  interpretations,  their 
divisions  and  sub-divisions,  their  attitudes  and  pos- 
turings  were  parodied  and  caricatured.  The  conven- 
tional Pharisee  was  classed  under  one  of  six  cate- 
gories :  he  did  the  will  of  God,  but  from  interested 
motives ;  he  was  forever  doing  the  will  of  God,  but 
never  accomplishing  it  ;  he  performed  absurd  pen- 
naces  to  avoid  imaginary  sins ;  he  accepted  office  in 
the  character  of  saint ;  he  sanctimoniously  begged  his 
neighbor  to  mention  some  duty  he  had  inadvertently 
omitted,  his  design  being  to  seem  faithful  in  all  things 
when  he  was  faithful  in  nothing ;  or,  if  sincerely  de- 
vout, he  was  devout  from  fear.  He  had  no  credit 
given  him  for  his  virtues,  and  more  than  due  discredit 


48  THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

for  his  vices.  In  time  of  peril  the  conservatives  out- 
numbered the  radicals,  for  radicalism  was  dangerous  ; 
and  the  feeling  between  the  two  classes  was  the 
bitterer  on  this  account;  the  conservatives  hating 
the  radicals  whom  they  could  not  disown,  the  radicals 
despising  the  conservatives  who  were  their  brothers 
in  faith.  Each  party  compromised  the  other  pre- 
cisely where  misapprehension  was  most  exasperating. 

For  the  radicalism  of  the  time  was  exclusively,  we 
may  say,  pharisaic.  There  was  no  other  of  any  con- 
siderable account.  None  but  believers  in  the  restora- 
tion of  Israel,  in  the  triumphant  vindication  of  her 
faith  in  a  new  and  complete  social  order  and  in  abso- 
lute political  independence  ;  none  but  believers  in 
divine  interposition,  and  a  personal  resurrection  of 
the  faithful  for  the  enjoyment  of  felicity  in  the  Mes- 
sianic kingdom  ;  none  but  devout  students  of  the 
scripture,  recipients  of  the  whole  tradition,  visionaries 
of  the  literal  or  spiritual  order,  could  entertain  so 
audacious  a  hope  ;  and  all  these  were  Pharisees. 

The  Essenes,  a  mystical  and  secluded  sect,  dwelt 
apart,  took  no  interest  in  public  affairs,  and  exerted 
no  influence  on  public  opinion.  Peculiar  in  their 
usages,  secret  in  their  proceedings,  contemplative  in 
their  habits,  quietists  and  dreamers,  they  so  trans- 
figured and  sul)limated  the  views  which  they  shared 
with  their  compatriots,  that  no  point  of  practical  con- 
tact was  visible.     From  them  no  prophet  or  reformer 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST.  49 

came.  The  soul  of  the  Hebrew  faith  was  all  they 
recognized  ;  the  body  of  it  they  were  indifferent  to. 
That  in  many  respects  their  doctrines,  precepts, 
social  usages  and  religious  practices  corresponded  with 
those  held  by  conscientious  Jews,  need  not  be  ques- 
tioned. It  does  not  follow  that  they  originated  or 
communicated  them.  Such  opinions  were  simply 
adopted  as  a  common  inheritance.  The  Essenes 
rather  withdrew  than  imparted  their  belief.  All  the 
ingenuity  of  DeQuincey  is  unavailing  to  establish  a 
practical  relation  between  the  Essenes  and  any  popu- 
lar movement  in  Judaea.  These  movements  were  led 
by  the  more  enthusiastic  of  the  Pharisees,  and  fol- 
lowed by  the  multitude  that  shared  their  ideas. 

The  "lawyers"  and  ''scribes,"  Pharisees  for  the 
most  part  by  profession,  were  in  consequence  of  their 
profession,  conservative.  Men  of  learning,  well 
balanced  in  mind,  carefully  educated,  good  linguists, 
masters  often  in  theology,  philosophy,  moral  science, 
familiar  as  any  were  with  natural  history,  the  mathe- 
matics, botany,  engaged  in  the  study  and  exposition 
of  the  sacred  books,  they  were  from  the  scholastic 
nature  of  their  pursuits,  disinclined  to  take  part  in 
popular  reforms.  There  were  no  zealots  among  them  ; 
they  were  men  of  moderate  opinions  and  calm  tem- 
pers, capable  of  stubborn  resistance  to  the  elements 
of  agitation,  but  incapable  of  vehement   sympathies 

with  enthusiasm. 

4 


50  THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

The  "  Herodians,"  were  a  limited  and  never  a 
popular  party,  who  hoped  that,  in  some  way,  the  de- 
liverance of  Israel  might  come  through  the  family  of 
Herod,  as  being  Jews  but  not  bigots,  of  foreign 
extraction  but  of  oriental  genius,  whose  dynasty  had 
been,  and  might  again  be,  independent  of  Rome. 
These  men  were  interested  in  public  affairs,  watched 
narrowly  the  signs  of  the  times  in  politics,  but 
were  as  jealous  on  the  one  side,  of  popular  outbreaks, 
as  they  were  on  the  other,  of  imperial  domination. 
Deliverance,  in  their  judgment,  was  to  come  by  diplo- 
macy, not  by  enthusiasm.  They  had  no  religious 
creed  that  distinguished  them  as  a  party.  Some  may 
have  been  Sadducees ;  more,  probably  were  Pharisees ; 
but  whether  Pharisees  or  Sadducees,  they  were  in  no 
danger  of  being  demagogues  or  the  dupes  of  dema- 
gogues. The  party  was  in  existence  at  the  period  of 
Jesus;  but  it  could  not  have  been  strong.  Its  influ- 
ence, if  it  ever  had  any,  was  declining  with  the 
decreasing  significance  of  the  Herodian  line.'  We  hear 
little  of  them  in  the  literature  of  the  time  ;  with  the 
final  and  absolute  supremacy  of  Rome,  they  disap- 
peared. The  casual  mention  of  them,  once  in  Mat- 
thew and  once  in  Mark,  on  the  same  occasion,  and 
in  connection  with  the  Pharisees,  is  evidence  that  they 
were  still  in  existence  late  in  the  first  century.  That 
is  their  last  appearance. 


IV. 

THE  MESSIAH  IN  THE  NEW  TESTA- 
MENT. 

The  earliest  writings  of  the  New  Testament,  the 
genuine  letters  of  Paul,  written  not  far  from  the  year 
60,  thirty  years  more  or  less  after  the  received  date  of 
the  crucifixion  of  Jesus,  take  up  and  continue  the  line 
of  Jewish  tradition.  No  traces  exist  of  literature  pro- 
duced between  the  opening  of  the  century  and  the 
epistolary  activity  of  the  apostle  of  the  Gentiles.  The 
times  were  unfavorable  to  the  production  and  the 
preservation  of  literary  work.  The  earliest  gospels, 
even  granting  their  genuineness  and  authenticity,  can- 
not be  assigned  to  so  early  a  period,  cannot  be  crowd- 
ed back  beyond  the  year  70,  and  must  probably  be 
placed  later  by  ten,  fifteen,  twenty  years.  They  bear 
evidently  on  their  pages  the  impress  of  ideas  which 
Paul  made  current.  Their  authors,  when  not  disci- 
ples of  his  school,  respected  it  and  had  regard  to  its 
claim.  The  gospel  of  Luke  betrays,  in  its  whole 
structure  the  shaping  hand  of  a  Pauline  adherent.  Its 
catholicity,  its  anti-Judaic  spirit,  its  frequent  and   ap- 


52  THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

proving  mention  of  Samaritans,  its  doctrine  of  demons 
and  powers  of  tlie  infernal  world,  its  constant  recogni- 
tion in  precept  and  parable  of  the  claims  of  the  heathen 
on  the  salvation  of  the  Christ,  are  a  few  of  the  plain 
marks  of  a  genius  foreign  ^o  that  of  Palestine.  The 
gospel  of  Mark  is  similarly  though  not  so  eminently 
or  so  minutely  characterized.  Even  the  gospel  of 
Matthew  contains  deposits  from  this  formation.  The 
language  of  one  verse  in  the  eleventh  chapter, — "  All 
things  are  delivered  unto  me  of  My  Father  ;  and  no 
man  knoweth  the  Son,  but  the  Father,  neither  know- 
eth  any  man  the  Father,  save  the  Son,  and  he  to 
whom  the  Son  will  reveal  him,"  confesses  in  every 
word,  its  Pauline  origin.  The  passage  lies  like  a 
boulder  on  a  common. 

Though  concerned  with  a  period  anterior  to  the 
apostle's  conversion,  with  events  whereof  he  had  no 
knowledge,  and  with  a  life  from  which  he  professed  to 
derive  only  his  impulse,  the  gospels  are  written,  not  in 
the  style  of  chronicles  or  memoirs,  but  in  the  style  of 
disquisitions  rather.  Far  from  being  the  artless,  guile- 
less, unstudied  compositions  they  have  passed  for, 
they  are  imbued  with  an  atmosphere  of  reflection,  are 
ingeniously  elaborate  and,  in  parts  painfully  studied. 
They  are  meditated  biographies,  in  which  the  bio- 
graphical material  is  selected  and  qualified  by  specula- 
tive motives.  Nevertheless,  these  are  the  only 
fragments  presumably  of  historical  character  that  we 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST.  53 

possess.  The  period  that  Paul's  ministry  supposes 
must  be  searched  for  in  these  after-minded  books. 
Hence  arise  grave  hterary  difficulties.  Several  points 
must  be  borne  in  mind  ;  the  absence  of  any  contem- 
poraneous account  of  the  ministry  of  Jesus  ;  the  utter 
dearth  of  early  memoranda  ;  the  advanced  age  of  the 
evangelists  at  the  time  they  wrote,  even  on  the  com- 
mon reckonino-  and  the  effect  of  aoje  in  weakening: 
recollection,  suggesting  fancies,  raising  queries,  inflam- 
ing imaginations,  making  the  mind  receptive  of 
theories  and  marvels  ;  the  influence  on  the  disciples 
and  on  the  intellectual  world  of  a  man  so  powerful  as 
Paul,  and  the  altered  speculative  climate  of  the  later 
apostolic  age.  The  literary  laws  forbid  under  these 
circumstances  our  reading  the  gospel  narratives  as 
authentic  histories — constrain  us  in  fact  to  read  them, 
in  some  sort,  as  disquisitions,  making  allowance  as  we 
go  along,  for  the  infusion  of  doctrinal  elements. 

The  actual  Jesus  is,  thus  understood,  inaccessible 
to  scientific  research.  His  image  cannot  be  recovered. 
He  left  no  memorial  in  writing  of  himself  ;  his  fol- 
lowers were  illiterate  ;  the  mind  of  his  age  was  con- 
fused. Paul  received  only  traditions  of  him,  how 
definite  we  have  no  means  of  knowing,  apparently  not 
significant  enough  to  be  treasured,  nor  consistent 
enough  to  oppose  a  barrier  to  his  own  speculations- 
The  character  of  Jesus  is  a  fair  subject  for  discussion 
and  conjecture ;  but  at  this  stage  in  a  literary  study  such 


54  THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

discussion  and  conjecture  would  be  out  of  place.  We 
have  at  present  simply  to  inquire  into  the  character  of 
the  Messianic  hope  as  it  was  illustrated  in  the  ante- 
Pauline  period.  This  task  is  less  difficult,  and  may  be 
accomplished  without  detriment  to  moral  or  spiritual 
qualities  which  Jesus  may  have  possessed. 

The  earliest  phase  of  the  Messianic  hope  in  the 
New  Testament  must  have  corresponded  with  prev- 
alent expectations  of  Israel  in  the  early  period  of  our 
first  century.  What  that  was  has  been  described.  The 
''  Son  of  Man  "  of  Matthew,  Mark  and  Luke,  their 
Pauline  elements  being  eliminated,  meets  the  require- 
ments in  every  respect,  and  in  no  particular  tran- 
scends them.  He  is  a  radical  Pharisee  who  has  at 
heart  the  enfranchisement  of  his  people.  He  is  re- 
presented as  being  a  native  of  Galilee,  the  insurgent 
district  of  the  country ;  nurtured,  if  not  born  in 
Nazareth,  one  of  its  chief  cities ;  reared  as  a  youth 
amid  traditions  of  patriotic  devotion,  and  amid  scenes 
associated  with  heroic  dreams  and  endeavors.  The 
Galileans  were  restless,  excitable  people,  beyond  the 
reach  of  conventionalities,  remote  from  the  centre  of 
power  ecclesiastical  and  secular,  simple  in  their  lives, 
bold  of  speech,  independent  in  thought,  thorough- 
going in  the  sort  of  radicalism  that  is  common  among 
people  who  live  "out  of  the  world,"  who  have  leisure 
to  discuss  the  exciting  topics  of  the  day,  but  too  little 
knowledge,  culture,  or  sense  of  social  responsibility  to 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST.  55 

discuss  them  soundly.  Their  mental  discontent  and 
moral  intractability  were  proverbial.  They  were 
belli2:erents.  The  Romans  had  more  trouble  with 
them  than  with  the  natives  of  any  other  province. 
The  Messiahs  all  started  out  from  Galilee,  and  never 
failed  to  collect  followers  round  their  standard.  The 
Galileans  more  than  others,  lived  in  the  anticipation 
of  the  Deliverer.  The  reference  of  the  Messiah  to 
Galilee  is  therefore  already  an  indication  of  the  char- 
acter he  is  to  assume. 

Another  indication,  equally  pointed,  is  the  brief 
association  with  Bethlehem,  the  city  of  David,  and 
the  pains  taken  to  connect  the  Messiah  with  the  royal 
line.  The  early  traditions  go  out  of  their  way  to 
prove  this.  A  labored  genealogy  is  invented  to  show 
the  path  of  his  descent.  Prophecy  and  song  are 
called  in  to  ratify  his  lineage.  Inspired  lips  repeat 
ancient  psalms  announcing  the  glory  that  is  to  come 
to  the  House  of  David.  An  angel  promises  Mary 
that  her  son  shall  have  given  unto  him  "  the  throne 
of  his  father,  David,  and  shall  reign  over  the  house  of 
Jacob  for  ever."  The  Messiah  is  called  the  "  Son  of 
David  ;  "  an  appellation  that  carried  the  idea  of  tem- 
poral dominion  and  no  other.  The  legends  respect- 
ing the  massacre  of  the  children  in  Bethlehem  and 
the  flight  into  Egypt,  belong  to  the  same  circle  of 
prediction. 

Another   indication  to   the  same  purpose  is  the 


56  THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

patient  effort  to  represent  the  Messiah  as  fulfiUing  Old 
Testament  anticipations.  "That  the  scripture  might 
be  fulfilled"  is  the  reiterated  explanation  of  his  ordi- 
nary actions.  The  earliest  records  miss  no  occasion 
for  declaring  the  Messiah's  fidelity  to  the  law  of  Moses. 
Among  the  first  words  put  into  his  mouth  is  the  earn- 
est protestation :  "  Think  not  that  I  am  come  to 
destroy  the  law  and  the  prophets  ;  I  am  not  come  to 
destroy  but  to  establish  ;  "  and  this  statement  is  fol- 
lowed by  a  detailed  contrast  between  the  literal  and 
the  spiritual  interpretation  of  the  law,  precisely  in  the 
vein  of  the  prophets  who  held  themselves  to  be  the 
true  friends  of  the  code  which  the  priests  and  formal- 
ists perverted.  There  is  nothing  in  this  criticism  dis- 
respectful to  the  commandments,  or  beyond  the  mark 
of  orthodox  scripture. 

The  visit  to  the  Baptist,  who,  entertaining  the 
popular  notion  of  the  Messiah,  and  believing  in  his 
speedy  advent,  welcomed  Jesus  to  the  vacant  posi- 
tion ;  Jesus'  response  to  the  call,  and  acceptance  of 
the  I'olc,  are  in  the  same  vein.  Let  it  not  be  forgot- 
ten that  the  later  misgivings  of  the  Baptist  were 
raised  by  the  apparent  failure  of  the  Messiah  to  justify 
expectation  ;  that  John,  from  his  prison,  sends  a  sharp 
message,  and  that  the  Messiah,  instead  of  correcting 
the  precursor's  crude  idea,  simply  bids  him  be  patient 
and  construe  the  signs  in  faith. 

The  story  of  the  Temptation  in   the  Wilderness, 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST.  5/ 

closely  patterned  after  incidents  in  the  career  of 
Moses,  is  calculated  to  join  the  two  closely  by  simi- 
larity of  experience.  That  the  Messiah  should  be 
tempted  is  quite  within  the  circle  of  later  Jewish  con- 
ceptions, as  the  literature  of  the  Talmud  proves. 

The  story  of  the  Transfiguration  derives  its 
point  from  the  circumstance  that  the  spirits  with 
whom  the  chosen  one  held  communion  were  Moses 
and  Elias,  the  law-giver  and  the  prophet  of  the  old 
dispensation. 

The  phrase  "  Kingdom  of  Heaven,"  so  frequent 
on  the  Messiah's  lips,  had  but  one  meaning,  which 
was  universally  understood.  It  described  a  temporal 
rule,  the  reign  of  a  prince  of  David's  line.  No  class 
of  people  accepted  the  phrase  in  any  different  sense. 
The  Christ  nowhere  corrects  the  vulgar  opinion,  or 
places  his  own  in  opposition  to  it.  The  evangelist 
intends  to  convey  the  idea  that  he  is  in  full  accord 
with  the  general  feeling. 

The  questions  put  to  the  Messiah  and  the  answers 
given  to  them  are  additional  evidence  of  this  assent  ; 
the  question,  for  example,  concerning  the  obligation  to 
pay  tribute  to  the  Roman  government,  a  test  question 
touching  the  very  heart  of  Jewish  patriotism,  and  the 
cautious  reply,  calculated  to  evade  the  peril  of  a  cate- 
gorical declaration  which  was  felt  to  be  called  for,  and 
to  be  due.  The  rejoinder  of  the  Christ  is  designed 
to    satisfy   the    popular   expectation   without   raising 


58  THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

popular  uproar.  It  is  the  answer  of  a  patriot,  but  not 
of  a  zealot.  Had  the  Messiah  not  corresponded  to 
the  image  in  the  Jewish  imagination,  the  inquiry 
might  have  been  summarily  dismissed.  Its  evasion 
proves  not  that  the  Christ  transcended  the  average 
expectation,  but  that  he  shared  it.  The  version  of 
the  incident  given  in  Matthew  XVII,  confirms  this 
judgment ;  for  according  to  that  account  the  Messiah 
privately  admits  the  exemption  from  tribute,  and  then 
provides  miraculously  for  its  payment,  "  lest  we 
should  give  offence." 

The  nature  of  the  excitement  caused  by  the 
Messiah  is  another  evidence  of  the  spirit  in  which  he 
wrought.  Everywhere  he  is  greeted  as  the  Messiah, 
the  son  of  David  ;  everywhere  the  multitudes  flock  to 
him,  as  to  the  expected  king.  His  intimate  friends 
are  never  disabused  of  the  notion  that  they,  if  they 
continue  firm  in  their  allegiance,  will  hold  places  of 
honor  at  his  right  hand.  He  reminds  them  of  the 
stringency  of  the  conditions,  but  does  not  condemn 
the  idea.  An  ambitious  mother  presents  her  two  sons 
as  candidates  for  preferment,  asking  for  them  seats 
at  his  right  and  left  hand,  on  his  coming  to  glory. 
He  rebukes  the  selfishness  of  the  ambition,  says  that 
seats  of  honor  are  for  those  that  earn  them,  not  for 
those  that  desire  them,  adding  that  he  has  no  au- 
thority to  assign  places  even  to  the  worthiest  ;  but  he 
does  not  discountenance  the  notion  that  he  shall  sit 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST.  59 

in  glory,  that  there  will  be  places  of  honor  on  either 
side  of  him,  or  that  the  faithful  servants  will  occupy 
them.     Indeed,  his  reply  confirms  that  anticipation. 

The  multitude,  impressed  by  his  claim,  desire  to 
make  him  a  king.  He  removes  himself  ;  not  because 
he  repudiates  all  right  to  the  office,  he  nowhere  hints 
that,  and  in  places  he  more  than  hints  the  contrary, 
— but  because  he  is  not  prepared  to  avow  his  pre- 
tension.    The  time  is  not  ripe  for  a  manifesto. 

The  writers  about  this  period  take  especial  pains 
to  limit  the  conception  of  the  Messiah  within  the 
boundaries  of  the  average  patriotic  ideal.  They  make 
him  declare  to  the  twelve  disciples,  as  he  sends  them 
forth,  that  before  they  shall  have  carried  their  mes- 
sage to  the  cities  of  Israel  the  Son  of  Man  would 
announce  himself.  On  a  later  occasion  he  is  made 
to  say  :  "  There  are  some  here  who  will  not  taste  of 
death  till  they  see  the  Son  of  Man  coming  in  his 
glory."  Declarations  like  these  are  pointedly  incon- 
sistent with  an  intellectual  or  moral  idea  of  the 
kingdom.  The  notion  of  progress,  instruction,  regen- 
erating influence,  gradual  elevation  through  the  power 
of  character,  is  precluded.  The  kingdom  is  to  come 
in  time,  suddenly,  unexpectedly,  by  a  shock  of  super- 
natural agency,  at  the  instant  the  Lord  wills  ;  the 
Son  of  Man  himself  knows  not  when,  for  it  is  not 
dependent  on  his  activity  as  a  reformer,  his  success 
as  a  teacher,  or  his  influence  as  a  person,  but  on  the 
decree  of  Jehovah. 


60  THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

The  attempt  on  the  popular  feeling  in  Jerusalem, 
strangely  called  the  triumphal  entrance  of  the  Messiah 
into  the  holy  city,  is  unintelligible  except  as  a  polit- 
ical demonstration  ;  whether  projected  by  the  Christ 
or  by  his  followers,  or  by  the  Christ  urged  by  the 
importunate  expectations  of  his  followers,  whether 
undertaken  hopefully  or  in  desperation,  it  nowhere 
appears  that  it  was  made  in  any  moral  or  spiritual 
interest.  All  the  incidents  of  the  narrative  point  to 
a  political  end,  the  public  assertion  of  the  Christ's 
Messianic  claim.  The  ass,  used  instead  of  the  chariot 
or  the  horse  by  royalty  on  state  occasions,  and 
especially  alluded  to  by  the  prophet  Zechariah  in  con- 
nexion with  the  coming  of  Zion's  King  ;  the  palm 
branches  and  hosannahs,  emblems  of  sacred  majesty; 
the  cries  of  the  attendant  throng  loudly  proclaiming 
the  Messiah  ;  the  Galilasan  composition  of  the  crowd, 
marking  the  revolutionary  temper  of  it ;  the  blank 
reception  of  the  pageant  by  the  citizens  who  were  too 
wary  to  commit  themselves  to  the  chances  of  collision 
with  the  Roman  authorities  ;  the  complete  failure  of 
the  demonstration  in  the  heart  of  conservative  Judaea; 
the  bearing  of  the  Christ  himself  as  of  one  conscious 
of  a  sublime  but  perilous  mission  ;  all  these  things 
find  ready  explanation  by  the  popular  conception  of 
the  Messiah,  as  a  national  deliverer,  but  are  unintelli- 
gible on  any  other  theory. 

The  unspiritual  character  of  the  Messiah's  attitude 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST.  6l 

is  made  yet  more  apparent  as  the  history  draws  to  a 
close.  The  violent  purging  of  the  temple  can  only 
by  great  vigor  of  interpretation  be  made  to  bear  any 
save  a  national  complexion.  It  was  the  assertion  of 
Jehovah's  right  to  his  own  domain  ;  an  indignant, 
passionate  assertion ;  the  declaration  of  a  zealot  whose 
zeal  overrode  considerations  of  wisdom. 

The  Christ's  bearing  before  his  Roman  judge  is 
of  the  same  strain  ;  the  proud  silence  of  the  arraigned 
prince  ;  the  bold  assertion  of  kingliness,  when  chal- 
lenged ;  the  stately  defiance  of  the  pagan's  wrath  ; 
the  appeal  to  supernatural  support  ;  the  prediction  of 
angelic  succor  in  the  hour  of  need,  in  strict  accord- 
ance with  the  apocalyptic  expressions  thrown  out  at 
the  last  supper,  and  reverberated  in  tremendous  rhe- 
toric on  the  Mount  of  Olives  and  in  the  palace  of  the 
high  priest,  expressions  in  full  and  literal  harmony 
with  the  Jewish  conceptions  of  the  Christ's  relations 
with  the  angelic  world,  wholly  in  the  spirit  of  Daniel, 
Enoch,  and  other  apocryphal  writings,  leave  no  doubt 
on  the  mind  that  this  personage  moved  within  the 
limits  of  the  common  Messianic  conception.  Pilate 
condemns  him  reluctantly,  feeling  that  he  is  a  harm- 
less visionary,  but  is  obliged  to  condemn  him  as  one 
who  persistently  claimed  to  be  the  ''King  of  the 
Jews,"  an  enemy  of  Caesar,  an  insurgent  against  the 
empire,  a  pretender  to  the  throne,  a  bold  inciter  to 
rebellion.     The  death  he  undergoes  is  the  death  of 


62  THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

the  traitor  and  mutineer,  the  death  that  would  have 
been  decreed  to  Judas  the  Gaulonite,  had  he  been 
captured  instead  of  slain  in  battle,  and  that  was 
inflicted  on  thousands  of  his  deluded  followers.  The 
bitter  cry  of  the  crucified  as  he  hung  on  the  cross, 
"  My  God,  my  God,  why  hast  thou  forsaken  me  ? " 
disclosed  the  hope  of  deliverance  that  till  the  last 
moment  sustained  his  heart,  and  betrayed  the  anguish 
felt  when  the  hope  was  blighted  ;  the  sneers  and 
hootings  of  the  rabble  expressed  their  conviction  that 
he  had  pretended  to  be  what  he  was  not. 

The  miracles  ascribed  to  the  Christ,  so  far  from 
being  inconsistent  with  the  ordinary  conception  of  the 
Messianic  office,  were  necessary  to  complete  that  con- 
ception. It  was  expected  that  the  Messiah  would 
w^ork  miracles.  This  was  one  of  his  prerogatives  ;  a 
certificate  of  his  commission  from  Jehovah,  and  an 
instrument  of  great  service  in  carrying  out  his  designs. 
To  the  Jew  of  that,  as  of  preceding  periods,  to  the 
crude  theist  of  all  periods,  the  belief  in  miracles  was 
and  is  easy.  In  such  judgment,  the  will  of  God  is 
absolute,  and  when  should  that  will  be  exerted  if  not 
at  providential  crises  of  need,  or  in  furtherance  of  his 
servants'  work .?  The  special  miracles  attributed  to 
the  Christ  of  the  earliest  New  Testament  literature 
are,  as  Strauss  conclusively  shows,  patterned  after 
performances  which  met  satisfactorily  the  demands  of 
the  Jewish  imagination  ;  being  either  repetitions  of 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST.  63 

ancient  marvels,  or  concrete  expressions  of  ideal  faith. 
The  miracles  of  this  Christ  are  precisely  adjusted  to 
the  exigencies  of  his  calling,  in  no  respect  trans- 
cending or  falling  short  of  that  standard. 

The  moral  precepts  put  into  the  Messiah's  mouth 
are  also  what  he  might  be  expected  to  utter.  The 
teachings  of  the  sermon  on  the  Mount  are  echoes, 
and  not  altogether  awakening  or  inspiring  echoes,  of 
ancient  ethical  law.  The  beatitudes  do  not  exceed  in 
beauty  of  sentiment  or  feUcity  of  phrase,  lovely 
passages  that  gem  the  pages  of  prophet,  psalmist  and 
sage.  Portions  of  the  morality  are  harsh,  ungracious, 
intemperate,  almost  inhuman  as  compared  with  the 
mellow  grandeur  of  the  older  law.  Several  of  the 
parables,  if  taken  in  an  ethical  sense,  contain  moral 
injunctions  or  insinuations  that  are  quite  unjustifiable; 
the  parable,  for  example,  of  the  laborers  in  the  vine- 
yard, the  last  of  whom,  though  they  have  worked  but 
one  hour,  receive  the  same  compensation  as  the  early 
comers,  who  had  borne  the  burden  and  heat  of  the 
day  ; — the  parable  of  the  steward,  which,  literally  con- 
strued, palliates  abuse  of  trusts  ; — the  parable  of  Dives 
and  Lazarus,  which  teaches  the  evil  lesson  that  felicity 
or  infelicity  hereafter  is  consequent  on  fortune  or  mis- 
fortune here.  These  and  other  parables  are  deprived 
of  their  dangerous  moral  tendency  by  being  removed 
from  the  ethical  category,  and  made  to  convey  lessons 
of  a  different  kind.     Read   the  story  of  the  laborers 


64  THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

in  the  vineyard  as  intended  to  justify  Jehovah  in  grant- 
ing the  same  spiritual  favors  to  the  newly  called  Gen- 
tiles as  to  the  descendants  of  Abraham  who,  from  the 
first,  answered  to  the  call  addressed  to  them  : — read 
the  story  of  the  steward  as  conveying  an  explanation 
of  the  Pauline  policy  in  making  capital  with  the  Gen- 
tiles by  offering  to  them  on  easy  terms  the  promises 
that  the  Jews  showed  themselves  unworthy  of,  and 
rejected : — read  the  story  of  Dives  and  Lazarus  as 
containing  the  idea  that  the  "  poor  in  spirit,"  the  out- 
cast, to  whom  the  mansions  of  the  Lord's  house,  the 
patrimony  of  Abraham  had  never  been  opened,  the 
people  who  had  nothing  but  faith, — v^^hom  even  pagan 
dogs  commiserated, — should  enjoy  the  blessedness  of 
the  Messiah's  kingdom  rather  than  those  who  claimed 
a  prescriptive  right  to  it  on  the  ground  of  descent  or 
privilege, — and  the  difficulty  of  reconciling  them  with 
moral  principle  is  avoided.  These  parables  and  others 
of  like  tenor,  do  not  belong  to  the  first  layer  of  Me-s- 
sianic  tradition,  but  to  the  second  deposit  made  by 
the  Apostle  Paul. 

To  the  same  period  belong  other  parables  that 
contain  larger  ideas  than  the  Jewish  Messiah  of  the 
first  generation  could  entertain.  Such  are  the  story 
of  the  net  cast  into  the  sea  and  gathering  in  of  every 
kind,  that  is,  "  Greeks  and  Romr^.ns,  barbarians,  Scy- 
thians, bond  and  free,"  not  Hebrews  only, — the 
miscellaneous    haul    being    impartially    examined — 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST.  6$ 

sweetness  of  quality,  not  forms  of  scale  being  made  the 
condition  of  acceptance  ; — the  story  of  the  good 
Samaritan,  designed  to  place  people  reckoned  idola- 
tors  and  miscreants  on  a  higher  spiritual  level  than 
anointed  priests  of  whatever  order,  who  postponed 
mercy  to  sacrifice.  Could  the  Jewish  Messiah  attri- 
bute to  Samaritans  a  grace  that  was  the  highest  ad- 
ornment of  faithful  Jews  ?  The  story  of  the  prodigal 
son  belongs  to  the  same  category.  The  elder  brother, 
who  has  always  been  at  home,  dutiful  but  ungracious 
niggardly  and  covetous,  is  the  Jew  who  has  never  left 
the  homestead  of  faith,  but  has  stayed  there,  confi- 
dently expecting  the  Messianic  inheritance  as  the  re- 
ward of  his  conventional  orthodoxy.  The  younger 
brother  is  the  Gentile,  the  infidel,  the  pagan  apostate, 
who  throws  off  the  parental  authority  and  reduces 
himself  to  spiritual  beggary.  He  spends  all  ;  he  con- 
tents himself  with  refuse ;  is  more  heathenish  than 
the  heathen  themselves  ;  swinish  in  his  habits.  Yet 
this  spiritual  reprobate,  by  his  unseemly  behavior,  for- 
feits no  privilege.  The  "mansion"  of  the  Father's 
house  is  still  open  to  him  when  he  shall  choose  to  re- 
turn. The  God  of  Abraham,  Isaac  and  Jacob  waits 
and  watches  for  the  penitent  ;  sees  him  a  great  way 
off  ;  runs  to  meet  him  ;  throws  his  arms  about  his 
neck ;  reinstates  him  in  his  place ;  celebrates  his 
arrival  by  feasting,  and  puts  him  above  the  elder 
brother  who  had  been  working  in  the  field   while  the 


65  THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

prodigal  had  been  rioting  in  the  city.  Such  a  lesson 
from  the  lips  of  the  Jewish  Messiah  would  have  been 
astonishing  indeed.  It  would  have  gone  far  towards 
overturning  his  ckim.  We  know  that  some  years 
later  the  lesson  was  inculcated  as  a  cardinal  doctrine 
by  Paul  and  regarded  as  a  heresy  by  the  Christ's  per- 
sonal disciples,  and  it  is  in  accordance  with  literary 
laws  to  refer  to  this  later  period  the  ideas  that  were 
native  to  it. 

The  religious  beliefs  imputed  to  the  Messiah  we 
are  sketching,  are  the  ordinary  beliefs  of  his  age  and 
people.  His  faith  is  the  faith  of  the  Pharisees.  His 
idea  of  God  is  the  national  idea  softened,  as  it  always 
had  been,  by  a  gentle  mind.  It  thinks  as  his  country- 
men thought  about  Providence,  fate  and  freedom,  good 
and  evil,  destiny,  the  past  and  the  future  of  his  race. 
He  believes  in  the  resurrection  and  the  judgment,  the 
blessedness  that  is  in  store  for  the  faithful  Israelite, 
the  misery  that  awaits  the  unworthy  children  of 
Abraham.  His  moral  classifications  are  the  technical 
classifications  of  the  enthusiastic  patriot,  who  con- 
founded national  with  rational  principles  of  judgment. 
He  believes  in  good  and  bad  angels,  in  guardian 
spirits  and  demoniacal  possession.  A  Pharisee  of  the 
narrow  literal  school  he  is  not.  His  allegiance  to  the 
Mosaic  law  is  spiritual,  not  slavish  ;  his  faith  in  the 
perpetuity  of  the  temple  worship  is  unencumbered 
with  formalism  ;  he  discriminates  between  the  priestly 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST.  6/ 

office  and  the  priestly  character,  between  the  form 
and  the  essence  of  sacrifice  ;  yet  is  he  capable  of 
lurid  feelings  and  bitter  thoughts  towards  the  Phari- 
sees of  another  school;  he  cannot  enter  into  the 
mind  of  the  Sadducee  ;  and  the  scribe  is  a  person  he 
cannot  respect.  On  this  side  his  intolerance  occasion- 
ally breaks  forth  with  inconsiderate  heat.  He  calls 
his  opponents  "  blind  guides,"  "  hypocrites,"  "  whited 
sepulchres,"  and  threatens  them  with  the  wrath  of  the 
Eternal. 

The  Messiah's  essential  conception  of  his  office 
does  not  differ  materially  from  that  of  his  country- 
men. He  is  no  military  leader ;  he  puts  no  confidence 
in  the  sword;  he  incites  to  no  revolt.  But  he  does 
not  trust  to  intellectual  methods  for  his  success ; 
the  success  that  he  anticipates  is  not  such  as  fol- 
lows the  promulgation  of  ideas,  or  the  establish- 
ment of  moral  convictions.  He  looks  for  demon- 
strations of  power,  not  human  but  superhuman.  The 
hosts  that  surround  him,  and  are  reckoned  on 
to  sustain  him,  are  the  hosts  of  heaven,  mar- 
shalled under  the  Lord  and  prepared  to  sweep  down 
upon  the  Lord's  foes  when  the  hour  of  conflict  shall 
strike.  He  will  not  draw  the  sword  himself,  or  allow 
his  followers  to  gird  on  weapons  of  war  ;  but  he  is 
more  than  willing  to  avail  himself  of  legions  irresist- 
ible in  might.  James  Martineau  has  touched  this 
point  with  a  master  hand :  "  The  non-resistant  prin- 


68  THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

ciple  meant  no  more  in  the  early  church  than  that 
the  disciples  were  not  to  anticipate  the  hour  fast  ap- 
proaching of  the  Messiah's  descent  to  claim  his  throne- 
But  when  that  hour  struck  there  was  to  be  no  want  of 
'  physical  force  '  no  shrinking  from  retribution  as  either 
unjust  or  undivine.  The  'flaming  fire,' the  'sudden 
destruction/  the  '  mighty  angels,'  the  '  tribulation 
and  anguish/  were  to  form  the  retinue  of  Christ,  and 
the  pioneers  of  the  kingdom  of  God.  The  new  reign 
was  to  come  zvitJi  force,  and  on  nothing  else  in  the  last 
resort  was  there  any  reliance;  only  the  army  was  to 
arrive  from  heaven  before  the  earthly  recruits  were 
taken  up.  *  My  kingdom/  said  Jesus,  *  is  not  of  this 
world,  else  would  my  servants  fight;'  an  expression 
which  implies  that  no  kingdom  of  this  world  can  dis- 
pense with  arms,  and  that  he  himself,  were  he  the  head 
of  a  human  polity,  would  not  forbid  the  sword  :  but 
while  "legions  of  angels"  stood  ready  for  his  word, 
and  only  waited  till  the  Scripture  was  fulfilled,  and 
the  hour  of  darkness  was  passed,  to  obey  the  signal 
of  heavenly  invasion,  the  weapon  of  earthly  temper 
might  remain  in  its  sheath." 

It  is  not  affirmed  here  that  the  actual  Jesus  corres- 
ponded to  this  Messianic  representation ;  that  he 
filled  it  and  no  more ;  that  it  correctly  and  adequately 
reported  him.  It  may  possibly  present  only  so  much 
of  him  as  the  average  of  his  contemporaries  could 
appreciate.     They  may  be  right  who  are  of  opinion 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST.  6g 

that  the  fourth  evangelist  comes  nearer  to  the  histor- 
ical truth  than  the  first.  That  the  earliest  New  Testa- 
ment conception  of  the  Messiah  has  been  correctly 
portrayed  in  the  preceding  sketch  may  be  granted 
without  prejudice  to  the  historical  Jesus.  They 
only  who  assume  the  identity  of  this  Hebrew  Messiah 
with  the  man  of  Nazareth,  need  place  him  in  the  niche 
that  is  here  made  for  the  Messiah.  There  are  others 
more  noble.  Let  each  decide  for  himself,  on  the  evi- 
dence, to  which  he  belongs.  Some  will  decide  that 
the  first  account  of  a  wonderful  person  must,  from  the 
nature  of  the  case,  be  the  falsest ;  others  will  decide 
that  in  the  nature  of  things  it  must  be  the  truest. 
Whichever  be  the  decision  the  literary  image  remains 
unimpaired.  Whether  time  should  be  judged  requi- 
site to  emancipate  the  living  character  from  the 
associations  of  its  environment,  and  bring  it  into  full 
view ;  or  whether  on  the  other  hand  time  should  be 
regarded  as  darkening  and  confusing  the  image,  for 
the  reason  that  it  allows  the  growth  of  legends  and 
distorting  theory,  is  a  question  that  will  be  touched 
by-and-by.  For  the  present  it  suffices  to  show  what 
the  earliest  representation  was,  and  to  trace  its  descent 
from  the  traditions  of  the  race.  The  materials  are 
adequate  for  this,  whether  for  more  or  not.  The  form 
of  Jesus  may  be  lost,  but  the  form  of  the  Messiah  is 
distinct. 


THE  FIRST  CHRISTIANS. 

The  death  of  the  Messiah  did  not  discourage  his 
followers,  as  it  might  have  done  had  he  presented 
the  coarser  type  of  the  anticipation  illustrated  by 
Judas  of  Galilee  whose  insurrection  had  been  extin- 
guished in  blood  some  years  before,  yet  the  movement 
of  Judas  did  not  cease  at  his  death,  but  troubled  the 
state  for  sixty  years.  His  two  sons,  James  and  John, 
raised  the  Messianic  standard  fifteen  years  or  there- 
abouts after  the  crucifixion  of  Jesus,  and  were  them- 
selves crucified.  Their  younger  brother,  Menahem, 
renewed  the  attempt  twenty  years  later,  and  so  far 
succeeded  that  he  cut  his  way  to  the  throne,  assumed 
the  part  of  a  king,  went  in  royal  state  to  the  temple, 
and  but  for  the  fury  of  his  fanaticism  might  have  re- 
erected  temporarily  the  throne  of  David.  But  this 
kind  of  Messiah,  besides  being  savage,  was  monot- 
onous. His  appeal  was  to  the  lower  passions  ;  the 
thoughtful,  imaginative,  contemplative,  poetic,  were 
not  drawn  to  him.  His  followers,  adherents  not  dis- 
ciples,— might,  at  the  best,  have  founded  a  dynasty, 
they  could  not  have  planted  a  church.  The  pure  en- 
thusiasm of  the  Christ,  his  entire  singleness  of  heart, 
70 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST.  7I 

the  absence  in  him  of  private  ambition  or  self-seeking, 
his  confidence  in  the  heavenly  character  of  his  mis- 
sion, his  reliance  on  superhuman  aid,  his  sincere  per- 
suasion that  the  purpose  of  his  calling  would  not  be 
thwarted  by  death,  insured  his  hold  on  those  who  had 
trusted  him.  They  did  not  lose  their  conviction  that 
he  was  the  Messiah  ;  they  anticipated  his  return,  in 
glory,  to  complete  his  work ;  in  that  anticipation  they 
waited,  watched  and  prayed.  The  name  "  Christians" 
was,  we  are  told,  given,  in  derision,  to  the  believers 
in  Antioch.  But  if  they  had  chosen  a  name  for  them- 
selves, they  could  not  have  hit  on  a  more  precisely 
descriptive  one.  "  Christians  "  they  were  ;  believers 
that  the  Christ  had  come,  that  the  crucified  was  the 
Christ,  that  he  would  re-appear  and  vindicate  his 
claim.  This  was  their  single  controlling  thought, 
the  only  thought  that  distinguished  them  from  their 
countrymen  who  rejected  the  Messiahship  of  their 
friend.  They  were  Jews,  in  every  respect  ;  Jews  of 
Jews,  enthusiastic,  devout,  pharisaic  Jews,  the  firmest 
of  adherents  to  the  Law  of  Moses,  unqualified  receiv- 
ers of  tradition,  diligent  students  of  the  scriptures, 
constant  attendants  at  the  temple  worship,  urgent  in 
supplication,  literal  in  creed,  and  punctual  in  obser- 
vance ;  acquiescent  in  the  claims  of  the  priesthood, 
scrupulous  in  all  Hebrew  etiquette.  They  were  de- 
termined that  the  Master,  at  his  coming,  should  find 
them  ready. 


72  THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

James,  "  the  Lord's  brother,"  set  an  example  of 
sanctity  worthy  of  a  high-priest.  In  fact,  he  assumed 
the  position  of  a  priest,  and  filled  it  with  such  auster- 
ity that  he  was  called  "  the  righteous."  He  tasted, 
says  Hegesippus,  neither  wine  nor  strong  drink ;  he 
ate  nothing  that  had  life  ;  his  hair  was  never  shorn  ; 
his  body  was  never  anointed  with  oil,  or  bathed  in 
water  ;  his  garments  were  of  linen,  never  of  wool ; 
so  perfect  was  he  in  all  righteousness  that,  though  no 
consecrated  priest,  he  was  permitted  to  enter  the  holy 
place  behind  the  veil  of  the  temple,  and  there  he  spent 
hours  in  intercession  for  the  people,  his  knees  becom- 
ing as  hard  as  a  camel's  from  contact  with  the  stone 
pavement.  To  those  who  asked  him  the  way  to  life, 
he  replied  :  *'  Believe  that  Jesus  is  the  Christ."  When 
some  dissenters  protested  against  this  declaration  and 
asked  him  to  retract  it,  he  repeated  it  with  stronger 
emphasis  ;  when  the  malcontents  who  revered  him, 
but  would  have  none  of  his  Messiah,  raised  a  tumult 
and  tried  to  intimidate  him,  he  reiterated  the  state- 
ment, adding  :  "  He  sits  in  heaven,  at  the  right  hand 
of  the  Supreme  power,  and  will  come  in  clouds."  For 
this  testimony,  says  tradition,  he  laid  down  his  life. 

The  fellow-believers  of  James  imitated  him  as 
closely  as  they  could.  They  were  proud  of  their  de- 
scent from  Abraham ;  they  were  tenacious  of  the 
privileges  granted  to  the  twelve  tribes  ;  they  kept  up 
their  relation  with  the   synagogue  ;  they  had  faith  in 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST.  73 

forms  of  observance  ;  they  revered  the  Sabbath  ;  their 
trust  in  the  literal  efficacy  of  prayer  was  implicit  ; 
they  were  excessively  jealous  of  intellectual  activity 
outside  of  their  narrow  communion  ;  their  anticipa- 
tions were  confined  to  the  restoration  of  Israel,  and 
never  wandered  into  the  region  of  social  improvement 
or  moral  progress  ;  in  general  ethical  and  social  cul- 
ture they  were  not  interested. 

They  had  no  ecclesiastical  establishment  apart 
from  the  Jewish  Church  ;  no  separate  priesthood,  no 
sacraments,  no  cultus,  no  rubric,  no  calendar,  no  lit- 
urgy. The  validity  of  sacrifice  they  maintained,  the 
doctrine  of  sacrifice  possessing  a  deeper  significance 
for  themi  from  the  growing  faith  that  their  Lord  was 
himself  the  paschal  lamb,  the  shedding  of  whose 
blood  purchased  the  remission  of  sins.  Hence  a  special 
encouragement  of  the  sacerdotal  spirit,  an  exaggerated 
sense  of  the  efficacy  of  blood,  a  theory  of  atonement 
more  searching  and  absolute  than  had  prevailed  in  the 
ancient  church.  The  later  doctrine  of  atonement  in 
the  christian  church  may  have  grown  from  this  small 
but  vital  germ. 

They  had  no  dogma  peculiar  to  themselves,  the 
doctrines  of  the  old  Church  being  all  they  needed  ; 
they  had  no  trinity  or  beginning  of  trinity ;  no 
christology ;  no  doctrine  of  Fall  ;  no  theory  of  first 
and  second  Adam ;  no  metaphysic  ;  no  philosophy 
of  sin  and  salvation  ;    no   interior  mystery  of  expe- 


74  THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

rience.  Whatever  newness  of  creed  they  avowed, 
was  owing  to  their  acknowledgment  of  the  Christ,  and 
consisted  in  a  few  very  simple  inferences  from  this 
tenet.  Of  course  even  slow-minded,  literal,  external 
men  could  not  entertain  a  belief  like  that,  and  not  be 
pushed  by  it  to  certain  practical  conclusions.  The 
expectation  of  the  Christ's  coming  would  necessarily 
raise  questions  respecting  the  conditions  of  acceptance 
with  him,  the  character  of  his  dominion,  the  duration 
of  it,  the  social  changes  incidental  to  it ;  but  it  does 
not  appear  that  speculation  on  these  subjects  was  car- 
ried far.  A  crude  millenarianism  developed  itself 
early  ;  a  cloudy  theory  of  atonement  found  favor  ; 
for  the  rest,  conjecture,  it  was  little  more,  dwelt  con- 
tentedly within  the  confines  of  rabbinical  lore. 

There  was  nothing  peculiar  in  their  moral  precepts 
or  usages,  nothing  that  should  effect  a  change  in  the 
received  ethics  of  the  nation.  Their  essential  creed 
involved  no  practical  innovation  on  private  or  social 
moralities.  The  mosaic  code  was  familiar  to  them 
from  childhood.  The  popular  commentaries  on  it 
were  promulgated  from  week  to  week  in  the  syna- 
gogues, and  their  validity  was  no  more  questioned  by 
the  Christians  than  by  the  most  orthodox  of  Jews. 

The  daily  existence  of  these  people  was  retired 
and  simple.  They  had  frequent  meetings  for  talk, 
song,  mutual  cheer  and  confirmation  ;  full  of  expecta- 
tion and  excitement  they  must  have  been  ;  wild  with 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST.      "     75 

memories  and  hopes.  For  the  believers  lived  out  of 
themselves,  in  an  ideal,  a  supernatural  sphere  ;  their 
hearts  were  in  heaven  with  their  Master,  whose  form 
filled  their  vision,  whose  voice  they  seemed  to  hear, 
from  whom  came,  as  they  fancied,  impressions,  intima- 
tions, influences,  unspoken  but  breathed  messages 
interpreted  by  the  soul.  They  were  visionaries* 
Their  life  was  illusion.  They  were  transported  beyond 
themselves  at  times,  by  the  prospect  of  the  Lord's 
nearness.  Their  minds  were  dazed ;  their  feelings 
raised  to  ecstasy  ;  in  vision  they  saw  the  heavens  open 
and  fiery  tongues  descend.  Their  small  upper  chamber 
seemed  to  tremble  and  dilate  in  sympathy  with  their 
feelings ;  the  ceiling  appeared  to  lift  ;  they  were 
moved  by  an  impulse  which  they  could  not  account 
for,  and  regarded  themselves  as  inspired. 

In  these  circumstances,  it  is  not  to  be  wondered 
at  that  they  lived  in  communities  by  themselves,  pre- 
ferring the  society  of  their  fellows  ;  that  they  had  a 
common  purse,  a  common  table  ;  that  they  were 
ascetic  and  celibate  ;  that  they  withdrew  from  public 
affairs  and  from  private  business,  and  approached 
nearly  to  the  Essenes,  with  whom  they  had  much  in 
common,  perpetuating  the  habit  of  monasticism,  which 
became  afterwards  so  prominent  a  feature  in  the 
Eastern  church. 

Nor  is  it  surprising  that  they  regarded  the  intimate 
friends  of  their  Christ  with  a  pecuhar  veneration,  and 


76  THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST, 

ascribed  to  them  extraordinary  gifts.  The  basis  of 
the  future  hierarchy  was  laid  in  the  honor  paid  to  these 
few  men.  They  were  credited  with  supernatural 
insight,  and  with  the  possession  of  miraculous  power. 
Their  touch  was  healing ;  their  mere  shadow  com- 
forted ;  their  approval  was  blessing  ;  their  displeasure 
cursed.  What  they  ratified  was  fixed  ;  what  they 
permitted  was  decreed.  Their  word.was  law  ;  it  was 
for  them  to  admit  and  to  exclude.  Ths  penalty  of 
excommunication  was  in  their  hands,  to  be  inflicted  at 
their  discretion.  Superstition  went  so  far  as  to  con- 
cede to  them  the  alternatives  of  life  and  death.  The 
legend  of  Ananias  and  Sapphira  is  evidence  of  a 
credulity  that  set  not  reason  only,  but  conscience  at 
defiance.  In  their  infatuation  they  believed  that  the 
Christ  above  communicated  a  saving  spiritual  grace 
to  such  as  the  apostles  touched  with  their  fingers. 

Very  singular,  but  very  consistent  and  logical 
were  the  views  of  death  entertained  by  the  brother- 
hood in  Christ.  As  their  Lord  delayed  his  coming, 
the  elders  grew  old  and  fell  asleep.  There  was  a 
brotherhood  of  the  dead  as  well  as  of  the  living;  the 
living  became  few  ;  the  dead  many.  Questions  arose 
respecting  the  destination  of  those  departed.  That 
they  had  perished  was  not  to  be  thought  of ;  as  little  to 
be  thought  of  was  the  possibility  of  their  forfeiting  their 
privilege  of  sharing  the  believers'  triumph.  The  resur- 
rection the  disciples  had  always  believed  in.     That,  at 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST.  // 

the  cominfTof  the  Messiah  there  would  be  a  sfeneral  res- 
urrection  of  the  faithful  Israelites  from  their  graves,  in 
field  or  rock,  was  part  of  their  ancestral  faith.  But  now, 
the  matter  was  brought  home  to  them  with  painful  re- 
ality. The  Christ  might  come  at  any  moment ;  the 
dead  were  their  own  immediate  kindred,  their  parents 
and  brethren.  The  problem  presented  no  difficulties  to 
their  minds  however  agitating  it  might  be  to  their 
hearts.  The  Lord  would  come  ;  of  that  there  could 
be  no  doubt ;  the  dead  would  rise,  that  was  certain  ; 
but  in  what  form.'*  In  Avhat  order.''  Would  the 
living  have  precedence  of  them  ?  Where  would  the 
meeting  take  j^lace  ?  How  would  the  dead  know  that 
the  time  of  resurrection  had  arrived  ?  The  answer 
came  promptly  as  the  question.  The  trumpet  of  the 
angels  would  proclaim  the  event  to  all  creatures, 
visible  and  invisible.  The  elect  would  respond  to  the 
summons  ;  the  gates  of  Hades  would  burst  asunder. 
In  etherial  forms,  lighter  than  air,  more  radiant  than 
the  morning,  the  faithful  who  had  died  "  in  the  Lord," 
would  ascend  ;  the  living  would  exchange  their  ter- 
restial  bodies  for  bodies  celestial,  and  thus  "  changed," 
"in  a  moment,  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye,"  would 
mount  upward  to  join  them,  and  all  together  would 
"meet  the  Lord  in  the  air."  For  the  believers  the 
grave  had  no  victory  and  death  no  sting. 

In  all  this  the  Christians  were  strictly  within  the 
circle  of  Jewish  thought.     The  belief  in  the  resurrec- 


yS  THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

tion  wore  different  aspects  in  different  minds  ;  the 
vision  of  the  hereafter  floated  many-hued  before  the 
imaginations  of  men.  The  fiery  zealots  who  "  took 
the  kingdom  of  heaven  by  violence,"  dreamed  of  the 
resurrection  of  the  body,  and  of  tangible  privileges  of 
dominion  in  the  terrestrial  millennium.  The  milder 
enthusiasts,  who  could  not  believe  that  flesh  and  blood 
could  inherit  the  kingdom  of  God,  were  constrained  to 
invent  a  "  spiritual  world  "  for  the  accommodation  of 
spiritual  bodies.  Some  conjectured  that  the  etherial 
forms  would  mount  to  their  native  seat,  only  at  the 
termination  of  the  thousand  years  reign  ;  the  spiritual 
world  being  brought  in  at  the  end,  as  a  device  of 
eschatology  to  dispose  finally  of  the  saints  who  could 
neither  die  nor  remain  longer  on  earth.  Others 
surmised  that  the  spiritual  world  would  claim  its  own  at 
once,  there  being  no  place  on  earth  where  the  risen 
could  live  and  no  occupations  in  which  they  could 
engage.     The  cruder  faith  was  the  earlier. 

The  fanatics,  as  described  in  the  second  Book  of 
Maccabees,  an  apocryphal  writing  of  the  second  cen- 
tury before  Christ,  hoped  for  a  corporeal  resurrection 
and  a  visible  supremacy.  Of  seven  sons,  who,  with 
their  mother,  were  barbarously  executed  because  they 
refused  to  deny  their  religion  by  eating  swines'  flesh, 
one  declares  :  "  The  King  of  the  world  shall  raise  us 
up  who  have  died  for  his  laws,  into  everlasting  life  ; " 
another,  holding  forth  his  hands  (to  be  cut  off),  said 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST.  79 

courageously,  "  These  I  had  from  heaven,  and  for  his 
laws  I  despise  them,  and  from  him  I  hope  to  receive 
them  again."  The  next  shouts  :  "  It  is  good  being 
put  to  death  by  men,  to  look  for  hope  from  God,  to 
be  raised  up  again  by  him ;  as  for  thee,  thou  shalt 
have  no  resurrection  to  life."  Finally,  when  all  the 
seven  have  died  heroically,  with  words  of  similar 
import  on  their  lips,  the  mother  is  put  to  death,  hav- 
ing exhorted  her  youngest  born  to  faithfulness  with 
the  exhortation  :  "  Doubtless  the  Creator  of  the  world 
who  formed  the  generation  of  man,  and  found  out  the 
beginning  of  all  things,  will  also,  of  his  o\Vn  mercy, 
give  you  breath  and  life  again,  as  ye  now  regard  not 
your  own  selves  for  his  laws'  sake."  The  same  book 
records  the  suicide  of  Razis  :  "  One  of  the  elders  of 
Jerusalem,  a  lover  of  his  countrymen,  and  a  man  of 
very  good  report,  who  for  his  kindness  was  called  a 
Father  of  the  Jews,  for  in  former  times  he  had  been 
accused  of  Judaism,  and  did  boldly  jeopard  his  body 
and  life  with  all  vehemency  for  the  rehgion  of  the 
Jews  ;"  "  choosing  rather  to  die  manfully  than  to  come 
into  the  hands  of  the  wicked,  to  be  abused  otherwise 
than  beseemed  his  noble  birth,  he  fell  on  his  sword. 
Nevertheless,  while  there  was  yet  breath  within  him, 
being  inflamed  with  anger,  he  rose  up,  and  though 
his  blood  gushed  out  like  spouts  of  water,  and  his 
wounds  were  grievous,  yet  he  ran  through  the  midst 
of  the  throng,  and,  standing  upon  a  steep  rock,  when 


80  THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

as  his  blood  was  now  quite  gone,  he  pkickecl  out  his 
bowels,  and  taking  them  in  both  his  hands,  he  cast  them 
upon  the  throng,  and  calling  upon  the  Lord  of  life  and 
spirit  to  restore  him  those  again,  he  thus  died." 

The  angel  of  the  book  of  Daniel  calls  up  a  fairer 
vision  :  "  Many  of  them  that  sleep  in  the  dust  of  the 
earth  shall  awake,  some  to  everlasting  life,  and  some 
to  shame  and  everlasting  contempt.  And  they  that 
be  wise  shall  shine  as  the  brightness  of  the  firma- 
ment ;  and  they  that  turn  many  to  righteousness, 
as  the  stars  for  ever  and  ever." 

Something  like  this,  perhaps,  was  the  anticipation 
of  the  Christ  sketched  in  the  last  chapter.  The 
personal  conception  is  shadowy.  There  is  nothing 
to  indicate  positively  that  he  departed  from  the  usual 
opinion  of  a  physical  resurrection  and  a  kingdom  of 
heaven  on  earth,  a  period  of  terrestrial  happiness 
under  the  rule  of  Jehovah.  The  declaration  to 
the  thief  on  the  cross :  "  This  day  thou  shalt  be  with 
me  in  Paradise,"  belongs  to  a  later  tradition,  cor- 
responding to  the  ideas  of  Paul.  The  parable  of 
Dives  and  Lazarus  must  be  assigned  to  the  same 
circle  of  doctrine.  The  saying  respecting  children, 
"  Their  angels  always  behold  the  face  of  my  father 
in  heaven,"  conveys  no  more  than  the  belief  in 
guardian  spirits.  The  "  angels "  are  not  departed 
children,  but  the  watchers  over  the  lives  of  living 
ones.     The  reply  given  to   the   Sadducees,  in   Matt. 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST.  8l 

XXII.,  "  111  the  resurrection  they  neither  marry,  nor 
are  given  in  marriage,  but  are  as  the  angels  of  God  in 
heaven,"  implies  that  the  temporal  condition  of  the 
Messiah's  subjects  will  differ  in  important  respects 
from  their  present  social  estate,  but  does  not  suggest 
a  celestial  locality  for  its  organization  ;  and  the 
declaration  that  follows  :  "  God  is  not  the  God  of 
the  dead,  but  of  the  living,"  affirms  merely  that 
Abraham,  Isaac  and  Jacob  are  not  annihilated,  that 
they  are,  or  will  be,  alive  ;  but  how,  where,  or  when, 
is  left  undecided.  The  expression,  "  Thy  kingdom 
come,"  in  the  paternoster,  so  different  from  the  latter 
petition :  "  May  we  come  into  thy  kingdom,"  looks 
towards  an  earthly  paradise.  The  succeeding  phrase, 
"  Thy  will  be  done  on  earth  as  it  is  in  heaven," 
points  in  tLe  same  direction.  It  is  probable  that  the 
Christ,  living  and  expecting  to  live,  contemplated  the 
establishment  of  his  Messianic  dominion  in  Palestine. 
After  his  death  and  disappearance,  the  thoughts  of 
his  friends  turned  elsewhither,  and  with  an  increas- 
ing steadiness,  as  his  return  was  delayed,  and  the 
probabilities  of  their  going  to  him  outweighed  the 
probabilities  of  his  coming  to  them.  The  change 
of  expectation  was,  it  is  likely,  a  gradual,  silent,  and 
unperceived  one,  effected  slowly,  and  not  completed 
till  a  new  conception  of  the  Christ  supplanted  the  old 
one,  and  transformed  every  feature  of  the  Messianic 
belief.     In  less  than  twenty-five  years  after  the  death 

6 


82  THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

of  Jesus,  this  change  was  so  far  effected  that  it  was 
capable  of  full  literary  expression.  The  writings  that 
publish  it,  are  the  genuine  letters  of  Paul,  and  other 
scriptures  produced  under  the  inspiration  of  his  idea. 


VI. 

PAUL'S    NEW   DEPARTURE. 

There  is  reason  to  think,  as  we  have  said,  that  the 
first  Messianic  impulse  would  have  spent  itself  inef- 
fectually in  a  few  years,  had  not  a  fresh  impulse  been 
given  by  a  new  conception  of  the  Messiah.  The 
Christ  outlined  in  the  earliest  literature  of  the  New 
Testament  would  hardly  have  founded  a  permanent 
church,  or  given  his  name  to  a  distinct  rehgion.  A 
new  conception  came,  in  due  time,  from  an  unexpected 
quarter,  through  a  man  who  was  both  Jew  and  Greek  ; 
Jew  by  parentage,  nurture,  training  and  genius ; 
Greek  by  birth-place,  residence  and  association;  a 
man  well  versed  in  scripture,  a  pupil  of  approved 
rabbis,  familiar  with  the  talmud,  and  deeply  interested 
in  talmudical  speculation  ;  a  Pharisee  of  the  straitest 
sect ;  an  enthusiast— yes,  a  fanatic  by  temperament  ; 
on  the  other  hand,  a  mind  somewhat  expanded  by  in- 
tercourse with  the  people  and  the  literature  of  other 
nations.  Paul's  feehng  on  the  "  Christ  question  " 
was  always  intense.     He  made  it  a  personal  matter, 


84  THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

even  in  his  comparative  youth;  distinguishing  himself 
by  his  zeal  in  behalf  of  correct  opinion  on  the  subject. 
He  appears,  first,  a  young  man,  as  a  persecutor  of  the 
Jews  who  believed  that  the  Christ  had  actually  come, 
and  who  were  waiting  for  his  return  in  clouds.  That 
idea  seemed  to  him  visionary  and  dangerous  ;  he  made 
it  his  business  to  exterminate  it  by  violence,  if  neces- 
sary. But  the  fury  of  his  demonstration  proved  his 
interest  in  the  general  idea.  He  was  at  heart  a  Mes- 
sianic believer,  though  not  in  that  style.  A  Messianic 
believer  he  continued  to  be,  but  to  the  end  as  little  as 
at  first,  in  that  style.  To  the  ordinary  belief  he  never 
was  "  converted  ; "  his  repudiation  of  it  was  perhaps  at 
no  time  less  vehement  than  it  was  at  the  beginning  ; 
as  his  own  thought  matured,  his  rejection  of  the  faith 
he  persecuted  in  his  youth,  became  it  seems  more 
deliberate,  if  less  violent. 

As  he  pursued  one  phase  of  the  Messianic  expec- 
tation, another  aspect  of  it  burst  upon  him  with  the 
splendor  of  a  revelation,  and  determined  his  career. 
The  man  who  had  breathed  fury  against  one  type,  be- 
came the  apostle  of  another.  The  same  fiery  zeal  that 
blasted  the  one,  warmed  the  other  into  life.  In  the 
book  of  the  "  Acts  of  the  Apostles,"  the  first  martyr 
at  whose  stoning  Paul  assisted,  bore  the  Greek 
name  "  Stephen,"  whence,  as  well  as  from  other  in- 
dications, it  has  been  surmised  by  Baur  and  others 
that  he  was  a  precursor  of  the  future  "  Gentile  party," 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST.  85 

pursued  and  slain  by  the  "orthodox"  on  account  of  his 
infideUty  to  the  cause  of  Hebrew  national  exclusive- 
ness.  If  this  conjecture  be  admitted,  the  deed  Paul 
had  abetted,  may  have  been  the  immediate  cause  of 
his  own  moral  revulsion  of  feeling.  The  slain  over- 
came the  slayer.  The  dying  hand  committed  to  the 
fierce  bystander  the  torch  it  could  carry  no  further. 
The  murdered  Greek  raised  up  the  apostle  to  the 
Greeks,  thus  avenging  himself  by  sending  his  adver- 
sary to  martyrdom  in  the  same  cause  for  which  he 
himself  bled.  In  religious  fervors  such  reactions  have 
been  frequent. 

For  Paul  was,  from  first  to  last,  the  same  person,  in 
no  natural  feature  of  mind  or  character  changed.  His 
religious  belief  remained  essentially,  even  incidentally 
unaltered.  A  Pharisee  he  was  born,  and  a  Pharisee 
he  continued.  The  pharisaic  doctrine  of  the  resurrec- 
tion was  the  corner  stone  of  his  system,  the  beginning, 
middle  and  end  of  his  faith,  the  starting  point  of  his 
creed.  His  conception  of  God  was  the  ordinary  con- 
ception, unqualified,  unmitigated,  uncompromised. 
The  divine  sovereignty  never  suffered  weakening  at 
his  hands.  One  can  hardly  open  the  epistle  to  the 
Jewish  Christians  in  Rome,  without  coming  across 
some  tremendous  assertion  of  the  absolute  supremacy 
of  God.  Read  the  passage  in  the  first  chapter, 
20-26  verses;  in  the  second  chapter,  6-12  verses; 
in  the  ninth   chapter,  14-23  verses ;  in  the  eleventh 


S6  THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

chapter,  first  verse    and    onward.      Read    i    Corin., 
fifteenth    chapter,    24-29     verses.      The     old    fash- 
ioned  Jewish    conception    is    expressed  in  language 
simply  revolting  in   its  bald   inhumanity.     The  views 
of  Divine  Providence  set  forth  in  some  of  these  sen- 
tences are  anthropomorphitic    to    a  degree    that  is 
amazing  in  an    intellectual  man  of  his  age  and  race. 
His  discussions   of  fate  and    free-will  betoken    the 
sternness  of  a  dogmatic,  rather  than  the  discernment 
of  a  philosophic,  mind.       His  notion  of  history  has 
the  narrowness  of  the  national  character.     His  ethics 
are  taken  from   the  law  of   Moses,  and  not  from  the 
more  benignant  versions  of  it.     The  grandest  ethical 
chapter  he  ever  wrote,  the  twelfth  chapter  of  Romans, 
contains  no  less  than  three  instances  of  grave  infidel 
ity  to  the  highest  standard  of   morality  in  his   own 
scriptures.      Rabbi    Hillel    said :  "  Love   peace,  and 
pursue  peace  ;  love  mankind,  and   bring  them   near 
the  law.     The  moral  condition  of  the  world  depends 
on  three  things, — Truth,  Justice,  and   Peace."     Paul 
says  :    "  If  it  be  possible,  so  mtich  as  lyeth  in  yoic,  live 
peaceably  with  all  men,"  implying  clearly  that  it  might 
not  always  be  possible,  and  in   such  cases  was  not  to 
be  expected.      The  tacit   proviso  in  the  phrase  **  so 
much  as  lyeth  in  you,"  discharges  the  obligation  of 
its  imperative  character ;  as  if  conscious  that  the  duty 
might    prove    too    much   for   the    moral   power,  he 
will   not   impose   it.     It   is    written  in  the  Talmud: 


THE    CRADLE    OF    THE    CHRIST.  8/ 

"  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor;  even  if  he  be  a  crim- 
inal, and  has  forfeited  his  life,  practise  charity  towards 
him  in  the  last  moments."  Paul  drops  far  below  this 
when  he  bids  his  disciples,  "Avenge  not  yourselves,  but 
rather  give  place  unto  wrath  "  (make  room  for  wrath 
that  is  wrath  indeed.)  "  For  it  is  written,  '  vengeance 
is  mine ;  I  will  repay,  saith  the  Lord.' "  Therefore 
(because  the  Lord's  vengeance  will  be  more  terrible 
than  yours),  "  if  thine  enemy  hunger,  feed  him  :  if  he 
thirst,  give  him  drink ;  for  in  so  doing,  thou  shalt  heap 
coals  of  fire  on  his  head."  That  is,  by  showing  kind- 
ness you  will  inflict  on  him  tenfold  agony ! 

Such  a  disciple  would  not  adorn  the  membership 
of  a  modern  Peace  Society.  The  language  ascribed 
to  him  in  Ephesians  bristles  with  military  metaphor  ; 
"  Fight  the  good  fight  of  faith,*'  ''  The  helmet  of  sal- 
vation," "  The  sword  of  the  Spirit,"  "  Armor  of 
light." 

In  the  days  of  our  own  anti-slavery  conflict,  his 
dictum,  "  Slaves  obey  your  masters,  in  fear  and  trem- 
bling, in  singleness  of  heart,"  was  a  tower  of  strength 
and  a  fountain  of  refreshment  to  many  an  upholder  of 
the  patriarchal  system.  The  later  Christians  in  the 
West  could  safely  justify  their  quiet  toleration  of 
the  system  of  slavery  in  the  Roman  Empire  by  the 
precepts  of  the  foremost  apostle.  If  the  genuineness 
of  the  epistle  to  Philemon  could  be  maintained,  the 
case  would   wear   a   different  look.     But   it  is  much 


88  THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

more  than  doubtful  whether  even  that  qualified  hu- 
manity proceeded  from  his  pen. 

In  our  own  generation  the  apostle  is  a  serious 
stumbling  block  in  the  way  of  "  evangelical  "  women 
who  are  friendly  to  the  aspirations  of  their  sex.  He 
showed  the  most  stubborn  Hebrew  principles  on  this 
subject.  "  Wives,  submit  yourselves  to  your  hus- 
bands "  ;  "  Let  your  women  keep  silence  in  the 
churches  ;  if  they  wish  to  learn  anything,  let  them 
ask  their  husbands  at  home  ;  for  it  is  a  shame  for 
women  to  speak  in  the  church."  "  It  is  permitted 
them  to  be  under  obedience."  The  Hindoo  scripture 
spoke  better  :  "  Where  women  are  honored,  there  the 
deities  are  pleased.  Where  they  are  dishonored  there 
all  religious  acts  become  fruitless." 

How  can  the  most  conservative  Republicans  ac- 
cept as  teacher  a  man  who  counsels  religious  men,  in 
proportion  as  they  ai^e  religions,  to  surrender  their  full, 
unqualified,  sincere  allegiance  to  established  author- 
ities because  they  are  established,  however  despotic, 
ferocious  nay  vile  they  may  be  ;  even  to  such  despot- 
isms as  that  of  Nero  ; — maintaining  that  resistance  to 
such  is  equivalent  to  resisting  the  ordinance  of  God  .'' — 
giving  this  not  as  the  counsel  of  prudence,  but  as  the 
dictate  of  conscience,  thus  proclaiming  exemption  from 
criticism  or  assault,  for  inhuman  tyrannies  }  Nothing 
short  of  this  is  inculcated  by  the  sweeping  declara- 
tion :  "  Let  every  soul  be  subject  to  the  higher  powers  : 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST.  89 

for  there  is  no  power  but  of  God  ;  the  estabUshed 
powers  are  ordained  of  God."  No  doubt  the  bidding 
was  given  in  view  of  a  turbulent  or  insurrectionary  spirit 
among  the  Israelites  in  Rome,  but  it  is  given  without 
explanation  or  limit.  It  ratifies  the  divine  right  of 
kings :  sanctions  the  principle  that  might  makes 
right.  Paul  was  an  enthusiast  for  ideas ;  not  a 
theologian,  not  a  social  reformer,  but  one  whose  zeal 
was  spent  on  doctrines.  Prevailingly  intellectual,  his 
whole  nature  was  fused  by  the  electric  touch  of  a  new 
thought. 

Paul's  acquaintance  with  the  Talmud  is  evidenced 
by  his  writings.  His  use  of  allegory,  his  fanciful  an- 
alogies, his  mystical  interpretations,  his  play  on  words, 
his  passion  for  types  and  symbols,  his  ingenious  spec- 
ulations on  history  and  eschatology,  betray  his  famili- 
arity with  that  curious  literature.  He  found  a  mine 
of  precious  material  in  the  mythical  Adam  Caedmon, 
the  progenitor,  the  prototype,  the  "federal  head"  of 
the  race,  the  man  who  was  not  a  man  but  a  microcosm, 
created  by  special  act  from  sifted  clay  ;  a  creature 
whose  erected  head  touched  the  firmament,  whose  ex- 
tended body  reached  across  the  earth  ;  a  being  to 
whom  all  save  Satan  did  obeisance  ;  who,  but  for  his 
transgression,  would  have  enjoyed,  an  immortality  on 
earth  ;  whose  sin  entailed  on  the  human  race  all  the 
evils,  material  and  moral,  that  have  cursed  the  world  ;. 
the   primordial   man,  who   contained  in    himself   the 


90  THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

germs  of  all  mankind  ;  whose  corruption  tainted  the 
nature  of  generations  of  descendants.  The  Talmud 
exhausts  speculation  on  this  prodigious  personality. 
The  doctrine  of  the  christian  church  for  fifteen  hundred 
years  was  not  so  much  colored  as  shaped  by  the  rabbis 
who  exercised  their  subtlety  on  this  tempting  theme. 
Philo,  a  contemporary  of  Paul,  is  in  no  respect  behind 
the  most  imaginative  in  his  conjectures  on  this  sub- 
lime legend.  That  Paul,  a  student  of  the  Talmud,  fell 
in  with  them,  should  excite  no  surprise.  That  he 
added  nothing  is  due  probably  to  the  fact  that  there 
was  nothing  to  add. 

From  the  Talmud,  also,  and  from  other  rabbinical 
writings,  Paul  derived  a  complete  angel ology,  a  de- 
partment of  speculation  in  which  the  Jewish  literature 
after  the  captivity  was  exceedingly  prolific — Meta- 
thron,  Sandalphon,  Akathriel,  Suriel,  were  familiar 
to  his  mind.  It  is  a  bold  suggestion  made  by  Dr. 
Isaac  M.  Wise,  the  Hebrew  rabbi  fresh  from  the  Tal- 
mud,* that  Metathron, — ii—a  Opoyny^  near  the  throne, 
called  by  eminent  titles,  "  king  of  the  angels,"  ''prince 
of  the  countenance,"  impressed  Paul's  imagination  and 
was  the  original  of  his  Christ.  Between  this  supreme 
angel,  co-ordinate  with  deity  and  spiritually  akin  to 
him,  and  the  Christ  of  Paul's  conception,  the  corres- 
pondence seems  to  be  too  close  to  be  accidental;  so 

*  Origin  of  Christianity,  p.  335-341. 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST.  91 

close,  indeed,  that  some,  unable  to  deny  or  to  confute 
it,  are  driven  to  surmise  that  the  first  conception  or- 
iginated with  the  apostle.  It  is  more  probable  how- 
ever, though  not  provable,  that  the  rabbinical  idea 
was  the  earlier,  and  that  the  apostle  took  that  as  well 
as  the  Adam  Caedmon  from  the  rabbis.  The  "  prince 
of  angels  "  precisely  met  his  requirement  as  a  counter- 
vailing power  to  Adam,  and  supplied  a  ground  for  his 
theory  of  the  second  Adam,  the  '' living  spirit,"  the 
"  Lord  from  Heaven,"  the  primal  man  of  a  new  crea- 
tion, the  first  born  of  a  new  progeny,  the  originator  of 
a  "law  of  life"  which  should  check  and  counteract 
the  "law  of  sin  and  death."  The  second  Man  was 
the  counterpart  of  the  first. 

He  is  a  man,  yet  is  he  no  man  ;  his  flesh  is  only 
"  the  likeness  of  sinful  flesh,"  liable  to  death,  but  not 
implicating  the  personality  in  dying.  He  is  the 
spiritual,  heavenly,  ideal  man  ;  celestial,  glorious,  image 
of  God,  translucent,  sinless,  impeccable  ;  pre-existent, 
of  course ;  without  father  or  mother  ;  an  expression  of 
divinity ;  a  creator  of  new  worlds  for  the  habitation 
of  the  "  Sons  of  God."  His  birth  is  an  entrance  into 
humanity  from  an  abode  of  light.  The  mission  of  this 
transcendent  being  is,  in  a  word,  to  break  the  force  of 
transmitted  sin,  and  reverse  the  destiny  of  the  race. 
He  imparts  the  principle  of  life,  which  is  to  restore  all 
things.  A  multitude  of  incidental  points  are  involved 
in  this  fundamental   one,  points  of  theology,  anthro- 


92  THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

pology,  history,  ethics,  metaphysics,  that  present  no 
difficulty  to  one  who  has  this  key.  The  long  disquisi- 
tions on  the  Mosaic  law,  the  discussions  on  the  privi- 
leges of  the  Hebrew  race  and  the  rights  of  other  races 
were  necessary.  The  familiar  doctrine  of  the  resur- 
rection derived  fresh  interest  from  association  with 
the  general  theory,  inasmuch  as  it  supplied  a  ground- 
work for  the  expectation  that  the  glorified  One  would 
re-appear  ;  and  the  hypothesis  of  a  "  spiritual  "  body, 
ventured  and  fully  developed  by  the  rabbis,  even  illus- 
trated by  analogies  of  the  "  corn  of_^  wheat  "  which  the 
apostle  makes  so  much  of  in  the  fifteenth  chapter  of  I. 
Corinthians,  supplied  all  else  that  was  wanting  to  com- 
plete the  scheme.  The  Christ,  being  sinless,  was 
held  to  be  incorruptible  ;  death  had  no  dominion  over 
him,  was  in  fact  in  his  case,  an  "  excarnation,"  the 
preparation  for  an  ascent  to  the  realm  of  light  he  came 
from,  and  to  his  seat  at  the  right  hand  of  his  Father, 
instead  of  being  a  descent  into  the  region  of  darkness 
to  which  mortals  are  doomed.  The  doctrine  of  last 
things  follows  from  the  doctrine  of  first  things.  They 
who  are  one  with  Christ  through  faith  share  his  death- 
lessness.  If  they  die,  it  is  merely  a  temporary  retire- 
ment, in  which  they  await  the  coming  of  their  Lord, 
who  will  in  his  own  time  call  them  out  of  their  prison 
house.  The  larger  number,  however,  were  not,  in  the 
apostle's  belief,  destined  to  die  at  all  ;  but  might  look 
as  he  did,  to  be   transfigured,  by   the   putting  off  of 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST.  93 

their  vile  bodies,  and  the  putting  on  of  glorious  bodies 
like  that  of  the  great  forerunner.  In  his  amplifica- 
tions on  this  theme,  Paul  shows  little  originality,  and 
adds  nothing  important  to  the  material  lying  ready  to 
his  hand. 

The  advantage  his  scheme  gave  him  as  a  preacher 
to  the  Gentiles  is  too  obvious  to  be  dwelt  on.  As  a 
Greek  by  birth  and  culture,  he  was  interested  in  the 
fate  of  other  nations  besides  the  Jews.  A  system  of 
religion  adapted  to  the  traditions  and  satisfactory  to 
the  hopes  of  a  peculiar  people, — a  national,  exclusive 
religion  in  the  benefits  whereof  none  but  Jews  might 
share,  and  from  whose  grace  no  lineal  descendant  of 
Abraham  could  be  excluded,  did  not  commend  itself 
to  this  man,  half  Jew,  half  Greek.  The  faith  that  ob- 
tained his  allegiance,  and  awoke  his  zeal  must  possess 
a  hmnan  character  by  virtue  of  which  its  message 
could  be  carried  to  all  mankind.  Such  a  faith  his 
new  theory  of  the  Christ  gave  him.  He  could  say  to 
his  Greek  friends  :  *'  This  religion  that  I  bring  you  is 
no  Hebrew  peculiarity.  Its  Christ  is  no  son  of 
David,  but  a  son  of  God  ;  its  heaven  is  no  Messianic 
kingdom  in  Judea,  but  a  region  of  light  above  the 
skies  ;  its  principle  is  faith,  not  obedience  to  a  cere- 
monial or  legal  code  ;  it  dispenses  entirely  with  the 
requirements  of  the  law  of  Moses ;  makes  no  account 
of  sacrifices  or  priests  ;  presumes  on  no  acquaintance 
with    Hebrew  scriptures,  or   reverence  for    Hebrew 


94  THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

men  ;  questions  of  circumcision  and  uncircumcision 
are  trivial  and  impertinent.  The  religion  of  Christ 
addresses  you  as  men,  not  as  Jewish  men  ;  it  appeals 
to  the  universal  sense  of  moral  and  spiritual  infirmity, 
and  offers  a  moral  and  spiritual,  not  a  technical  deliv- 
erance ;  instead  of  limiting,  it  will  enlarge  you  ;  in- 
stead of  binding,  it  will  emancipate  you  ;  its  genius  is 
liberty,  through  which  you  are  set  free  from  ceremo- 
nialism, ritualism,  dogmatism,  moralism,  and  are  made 
partakers  of  a  new  intellectual  life." 

Not  all  at  once  did  this  scheme  unfold  itself  be- 
fore the  apostle's  vision.  Gradually  it  came  to  him 
as  he  meditated  alone,  or  experimented  with  it  on 
listeners  in  remote  places.  Naturally,  he  avoided  the 
associations  of  the  people  he  had  persecuted,  and  the 
teachers  they  looked  up  to.  He  had  nothing  to  learn 
from  them ;  he  understood  their  system  and  was  dis- 
satisfied with  it,  in  short,  rejected  it.  Their  Jewish 
Messiah,  literal,  national,  hebraic,  was  not  an  attrac- 
tive personage  to  his  mind.  The  promise  of  felicity 
in  a  Jewish  kingdom  of  heaven  was  not  enchanting. 
The  daily  life  of  the  believers  in  Jerusalem  was  for- 
mal, unnatural,  repulsive  to  one  who  had  "  walked 
large"  in  foreign  cities  and  realms  of  thought.  The 
apostles,  Peter,  James,  John,  had  nothing  important  to 
tell  him  that  he  did  not  know  already.  The  earthly  de- 
tails of  the  life  of  Jesus  might  have  interested  him,  but 
the  interior  cliaracter  and  the  human  significance  of 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST.  95 

the  Christ  were  the  main  thing,  and  these  he  may  have 
thought  himself  more  in  the  way  of  appreciating  by  a 
temporary  retirement  to  the  depths  of  his  own  con- 
sciousness. Having  matured  his  thoughts,  he  did 
put  himself  in  communication  with  the  original  dis- 
ciples, with  what  result  is  frankly  stated  in  his  letter 
to  the  Galatians  :  "  To  those  who  seemed  to  be  some- 
what (what  they  were  is  no  concern  of  mine,  God 
accepteth  no  man's  person),  but  who  in  conference 
added  nothing  to  me,  I  did  not  give  way,  in  subjec- 
tion, no,  not  for  an  hour."  So  heated  he  becomes,  as 
he  remembers  this  interview,  that  he  can  scarcely 
write  coherently  about  it.  The  two  conceptions  of 
the  Christ  and  his  office  were  so  far  apart,  that  he  did 
not,  to  his  dying  day,  form  intimate  relations  with 
the  teachers  of  the  primitive  gospel.  They  taught 
an  uncongenial  scheme. 

From  the  first,  Paul's  sphere  of  action  was  the 
Gentile  world  to  which  his  message  was  adapted.  If 
his  first  appeal  was  addressed  to  Jews,  it  was  simply 
because  Christianity,  as  he  understood  it,  being  an 
outgrowth  from  Jewish  thought,  a  development  of 
Jewish  tradition,  should  naturally  be  more  intelligible 
and  more  welcome  to  them  than  to  people  who  had 
no  historical  or  literary  preparation  for  it.  But  he 
took  the  broad  ground  with  them,  and  addressed 
his  word  to  outsiders  the  moment  stubbornly  dogmati- 
cal Jews  declined  to  receive  it  on  his  terms.     The  at- 


C)6  THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

tempt  made  by  the  author  of  the  "  Acts  of  the  Apos- 
tles/' to  show  that  Paul  modified  or  qualified  his  scheme 
to  bring  it  into  harmony  with  the  older  scheme  that  he 
supplanted,  fails  from  the  circumstance  that  the 
writer  discerns  no  peculiarity  in  his  theory  of  the 
Christ,  and  consequently  misses  completely  the 
ground  of  any  antagonism. 

This  is  written  in  the  persuasion  that  the  "  Acts 
of  the  Apostles  "  is  not  trustworthy  as  history ;  has 
in  fact  no  historical  intent,  but  belongs  to  the  class 
of  writings  that  may  be  called  conciliatory,  or  media- 
torial, designed  to  bring  opposing  views  together,  to 
heal  divisions,  and  smooth  over  rough  places.  By 
pulling  hard  at  both  ends  of  the  string,  dragging  Peter 
towards  Paul,  and  Paul  towards  Peter,  ascribing  to 
both  the  same  opinions,  imputing  to  both  the  same 
designs,  and  passing  both  through  the  same  experi- 
ences, the  author  would  make  his  readers  believe  that 
they  stood  on  the  same  foundation.  The  grounds  of 
the  opinion  above  stated  cannot  be  given  here  ;  but 
there  are  grounds  for  it,  and  solid  ones,  as  any  one 
may  discover  who  will  take  the  pains  to  look  at  Ed- 
ward Zeller's  essay  on  the  "  Acts,"  or  any  other  argu- 
ment from  an  unprejudiced  point  of  view.  The  con- 
clusion may  be  arrived  at,  however,  by  a  shorter  p;o- 
cess,  namely,  by  taking  Paul's  Christology  as  given  by 
himself  in  his  own  letters,  and  then  considering  how 
completely  it  is  excluded  from  the  book.     It  seems  to 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST.  Q/ 

the  present  writer  nothing  less  than  certain,  as  plain  as 
any  point  of  literary  criticism  can  be,  that  the  *'  Acts 
of  the  Apostles  "  is  not  to  be  relied  on  for  informa- 
tion respecting  the  life  and  opinions  of  the  apostle 
Paul.  In  this  opinion  writers  belonging  to  very  dif- 
ferent schools  of  religious  philosophy,  Mackay.  for  ex- 
ample, and  Martineau,  are  cordially  agreed.  This 
must  henceforth  be  regarded  as  one  of  the  points  es- 
tablished. The  firmer  the  apprehension  of  Paul's 
peculiarity,  the  stronger  is  the  conviction  that  the 
description  of  his  conduct  in  the  book  of  "Acts  "  must 
be  fanciful.  If  he  tells  the  truth,  as  there  is  no' rea- 
son to  doubt,  the  unknown  author  of  the  "Acts"  ro- 
mances. 

The  necessity  that  Paul  was  under  of  commend- 
ing his  christology  to  the  Jews,  a  self-imposed  neces- 
sity in  part,  inasmuch  as  his  own  genius  being  Jew- 
ish, imposed  it  on  him,  embarrassed  the  movement  of 
his  mind  to  such  a  degree  that  he  was  never  able  to  do 
perfect  justice  to  his  own  theory.  Much  time  was  spent 
in  explaining  his  conduct  to  orthodox  Jews,  or  in 
answering  questions  raised  by  hebrew  casuistry.  The 
epistle  to  the  Romans,  the  most  labored  of  his  compo- 
sitions, is  a  long  argument  addressed  to  his  country- 
men in  Rome,  with  the  design  of  persuading  them 
that  Jehovah  was  quite  justified  in  accepting  Gentiles 
who  conformed  to  his  requirements,  and  in  rejecting 

children  of  Abraham  who  did  not.    This  is  the  burden 

7 


98  THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

of  the  letter.  The  argument  is  lighted  up  by  splendid 
bursts  of  eloquence,  and  diversified  by  keen  remarks  on 
points  of  psychology.  But,  omitting  two  or  three  of  the 
chapters  and  scattered  passages  in  others,  the  remainder 
is  intellectually  arid  and  devoid  of  human  interest.  The 
same  may  be  said  of  the  letter  to  the  Galatians.  The 
epistles  to  the  Thessalonians,  and  those  to  the  Corin- 
thians, are  occupied  chiefly  with  matters  of  local  and 
incidental  concern.  It  is  probable  that  Paul's  genius 
was  disastrously  circumscribed  within  hebrew  limits 
after  all ;  that  he  never  completely  emancipated  him- 
self even  from  the  old  time  traditions  of  his  people  ; 
that  the  Jewish  half  of  the  man  was  not  the  weaker  half. 
A  philosopher  he  was  not ;  a  theologian,  in  the  great 
sense,  he  was  not ;  a  metaphysician  he  was  not  ; 
a  psychologist  he  was  not.  He  was  an  apostle,  a 
preacher,  The  problems  he  discussed  were  formal 
rather  than  vital,  and  the  spirit  in  which  he  discussed 
them  was  the  temper  of  the  dogmatist  rather  than 
that  of  the  seer.  However  this  may  be,  it  may  be 
affirmed  that  his  system  contained  no  strictly  original 
ideas ;  that  his  leading  thoughts,  and  even  the  phases 
of  his  thought,  were  borrowed  from  the  literature  of 
his  nation,  or,  at  least,  may  be  found  there. 

It  is  a  frequent  remark  that,  but  for  St.  Paul, 
Christianity  might  have  had  no  life  out  of  Judea ; 
which  is  tantamount  to  saying  that  it  might  have  had 
no  prolonged  or  extended  life  at  all,  but  would  have 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST.  99 

perished  as  an  incidental  phase  of  Judaism.  The 
remark  is  essentially  just ;  at  the  same  time  it  must 
be  remembered  that  the  Christianity  which  Paul 
devised  and  planted  was  a  system  quite  unlike  that 
of  his  predecessors,  though  still  another  phase  of 
Judaism,  a  divergent  and  cosmopolitan  phase. 

Other  pieces  of  literature,  Ephesians,  Colossians, 
Philippians,  Hebrews,  which,  whether  the  compositions 
of  Paul  or  not,  contain  developments  of  his  thought, 
and  may  be  called  "  Pauline/'  carry  further  his 
central  speculation  and  apply  his  principle  to  the  new 
problems  that  presented  themselves  in  the  social  life 
of  the  religion;  yet  these  do  not  go  beyond  the  lines 
of  Jewish  thought.  The  significant  passage  in  Phil- 
ippians, "Who,  although  he  was  in  the  form  of  God, 
thought  not  that  an  equality  with  God,  was  a  thing  he 
ought  greedily  to  grasp  at,"  suggests  the  Greek 
mythus  of  Lucifer,  who  fell  because,  being  already  the 
brightest  of  beings,  he  was  discontented  with  a  formal 
inferiority  of  rank.  His  crime  consisted  in  rapaciously 
grasping  at  a  power  which  was,  in  all  but  the  name,  his 
own.  The  Christ,  in  contrast,  was  satisfied  with  the 
substance ;  he  willingly  resigned  pretension  to  the 
position.  But  the  Greek  mythus  was  the  reflection 
of  a  legend  from  the  farther  East,  and  came  to  this 
author  more  naturally  through  Judaism  than  through 
Paganism.  According  to  Neander's  classification  the 
Gnostics,  from  whom  this  theosophic  conception  came, 


lOO         THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

were  Judaistic.  Gieseler's  classification  leads  to  the 
same  inference,  for  the  Alexandrian  Gnosis  was  the 
product  of  Greek  thought,  blended  with  Jewish.  The 
classification  of  Gieseler  has  regard  to  the  source 
whence  the  speculation  came  ;  that  of  Neander  to  the 
tendency  of  the  speculation.  In  whichever  aspect  we 
view  the  myth,  its  Jewish  character  is  apparent. 
The  writer  has  pushed  his  speculations  into  new  fields 
that  yet  lay  within  the  ancestral  domain.  He  de- 
scribes the  Christ  as  being  but  the  semblance  of  a  man, 
in  "fashion  "  a  man,  not  in  substance.  The  thought 
is  a  further  development,  yet  a  strictly  logical  one,  of 
Paul's  idea  that  the  Christ  was  made  "  in  the  likeness 
of  sinful  flesh."  The  two  expressions  are  parallel,  in 
fact  identical  ;  "  body,"  in  Pauline  phrase  being,  from 
the  nature  of  the  case,  "  sinful  body."  The  writer 
speaks  of  the  dominion  of  the  Christ  as  extended  over 
the  three  spheres,  heaven,  earth,  and  the  under-world  ; 
scarcely  thereby  enlarging  the  scope  of  a  previous 
thought,  for  as  much  as  these  spheres  were  compre- 
hended in  the  dominion  of  the  Christ  who  "  created 
the  worlds,"  the  new  worlds  that  constituted  the  new 
creation,  whereof  he  was  Lord. 

The  letter  to  the  Hebrews,  an  exceedingly  elaborate 
exposition  of  the  close  relation  between  the  new  faith 
and  the  old,  an  argument  and  a  plea  for  the  new  faith 
as  containing  in  substance  all  that  the  old  contained 
in  form,  is  Jewish  in  coloring  throughout,  an  exaggera- 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST.         10 1 

tion  of  Jewish  ideas.  The  argument  is  that  Chris- 
tianity excels  Judaism  in  its  own  excellencies.  The 
Christ  is  called  "  high  priest,"  "  perpetual  priest," 
possessing  the  power  to  confer  endless  life.  By  the 
sacrifice  of  himself  he  has  entered  at  once  into  the 
holy  of  holies.  He  has  tasted  death  for  every  man — 
another  way  of  saying  that  he  has  deprived  death  for 
every  man  of  its  bitterness.  He  has  destroyed  the 
devil  who  held  the  kingdom  of  death.  He  has  recon- 
ciled man  with  God  by  abolishing  death,  and  with 
death  sin,  which  is  the  strength  of  death.  The  Christ 
is  represented  as  the  author  of  salvation  to  all  that 
obey  him ;  he  lives  forever  to  make  intercession  ; 
his  blood  purges  men's  consciences  from  reliance  on 
dead  works  ;  he,  once  for  all,  has  devoted  himself  to 
bear  the  sins  of  many  ;  he  will  come  again,  and  bring 
salv^ation  to  such  as  wait  for  him ;  all  these  are  merely 
completed  expressions  of  the  idea  enunciated  by  Paul. 
The  Christ  himself  is  described  in  this  epistle  as 
*'  the  appointed  heir  of  all  things  ;"  *'  the  brightness  of 
God's  glory  and  the  express  image  of  His  person ; " 
"  upholding  all  things  by  the  word  of  His  power  ; " 
"the  First  Begotten;"  "the  object  of  adoration  by 
the  angels."  To  support  this  view,  the  Old  Testa- 
ment is  ingeniously  quoted  and  misapplied.  The  in- 
fluence of  Jewish  thought  appears  also  in  the  pas- 
sages that  describe  the  Christ  as  an  agent,  appointed 
to  his  office  ;  an  official,  "  sitting  at  the  right  hand  of 


I02         THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

the  Majesty  on  High;"  as  fulfilling  His  mission  and 
obtaining  His  glory  through  suffering  ;  as  subjected 
to  human  experiences  of  temptation  ;  as  strictly  sub- 
ordinate to  God. 

The  scriptures  entitled  "  Colossians  "  and  "  Ephe- 
sians  "  betray  still  greater  familiarity  with  Alexandro- 
Jewish  conceptions,  and  a  yet  deeper  sympathy  with 
them.  The  Christ  is  here  "  the  image  of  God,  the 
first-born  of  every  creature."  It  is  declared  that  "  by 
Him  were  all  things  created  that  are  in  heaven  and 
on  earth ;  things  visible  and  invisible  ;  thrones,  do- 
minions, principalities,  powers  ;  by  Him  and  for  Him 
they  were  created."  "  He  is  far  above  all  principality, 
and  power,  and  might,  and  dominion,  and  every  name 
that  is  named,  whether  in  this  world  or  the  world  to 
come."  He  is  "  all  in  all."  He  is  the  pleroma,  the 
fulness,  the  abyss  of  possibility.  "  The  fulness  of 
the  Godhead  dwells  in  Him  visibly."  He  exhausts 
the  divine  capacity  of  expression.  He  is  the  reality 
of  God.  Towards  mankind  he  is  the  reconciler.  In 
him  "  all  things  are  gathered  together  in  one."  By 
the  blood  of  his  cross  he  has  made  peace  and  recon- 
ciled all  things  to  himself ;  things  on  earth  and 
things  in  heaven.  In  a  striking  passage,  the  writer 
of  "  Ephesians"  describes  the  Christ  as  first  descend- 
ing into  the  under  world  to  release  the  captives  bound 
in  the  chains  of  Satan,  and  thence  ascending  up  on 
high  and  sending  down  gifts  to  men. 


THE    CRADLE    OF    THE    CHRIST.  IO3 

Boih  of  these    compositions    abound    in    Gnostic 
phraesology.     The  abstruse  terms  "  Mystery,"  "  Wis- 
dom," "yEon,"  "Prince   of  the  Powers"   recur  again 
and  again,   and  always  with   the  cabalistic  meaning. 
The  writers   are   caught  in   the  meshes  of  Oriental 
speculation,  and   apparently  make  no   effort  to  extri- 
cate   themselves.      On    the    contrary,    they    welcome 
their    enthralment,    taking    the   binding   cords   to   be 
guiding    strings    towards    the    truth.     So  far,   again, 
instead  of  escaping  from  the  Jewish  tradition  we  are 
tethered  to  it  more  securely  than  before.     The  litera- 
ture of  the  New  Testament  is  seen  to  be  still  a  con- 
tinuation and  completion  of  the  literature  of  the  Old. 
The  earliest  form  of  the   Messianic  doctrine  is  com- 
pletely distanced.     Scarcely  a  trace  of  it  remains.     Of 
the  throne   of   David    not   a   word.     Not   a  word    of 
Moses  and  the  Prophets,  of  the  historical  fulfilment 
of  ancient  prediction,  of  the  temple  worship,  of  the 
chosen   people.     Pharisees  and   Sadducees   are  alike 
omitted.     The  very  word  "  kingdom,"  as  denoting  a 
visible  Messianic  reign,  is  dropped.     But  the  territory 
of  Judaism  has  not  been  abandoned.     Galilee  is  de- 
serted ;  Jerusalem  is  overthrown  ;  but  the  schools  of 
the  rabbins  are  open. 

It  will  be  remarked  that  the  moral  teaching  is 
more  vague  and  mystical  than  it  was  in  the  early 
time.  The  theological  spirit  prevails  over  the  human  ; 
the  ecclesiastical   supersedes    the    ethical.     Practical 


IC4         THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

principle  is  postponed  to  theoretical  doctrine.  The 
virtues  prescribed  are  ghostly,  technical ;  the  graces 
of  a  church,  not  the  qualities  of  a  brotherhood.  The 
intellectual  air  is  thinner  and  more  difficult  to  inhale. 
The  spiritual  atmosphere  is  not  inspiring.  Intelli- 
gence can  make  nothing  of  writing  like  this  :  "  The 
husband  is  the  head  of  the  wife,  even  as  Christ  is  the 
head  of  the  Church  ;  and  He  is  the  Saviour  of  the 
body.  Therefore,  as  the  Church  is  subject  to  Christ, 
so  let  wives  be  subject  in  all  things  to  their  husbands. 
Husbands  love  your  wives,  even  as  Christ  also  loved 
the  Church,  and  gave  Himself  for  it,  that  He  might 
sanctify  and  cleanse  it  with  the  washing  of  water  by 
the  Word  ;  that  He  might  present  it  to  Himself  a 
glorious  Church,  not  having  spot  or  wrinkle,  or  any 
such  thing  ;  but  that  it  should  be  holy  and  without 
blemish."  The  absence  of  rational  ground  for  duty 
in  the  most  familiar  relations  of  life  could  not  be 
more  explicitly  declared  than  in  a  passage  like  this. 
That  such  an  age  should  have  had  a  scientific  system 
of  morality  cannot  be  expected ;  but  that  the  tra- 
ditional system  should  have  been  lost,  and  a  fantas- 
tical one  set  up  in  its  'pl^.cQ,  is  a  testimony  to  the 
influence  of  the  mystical  spirit.  The  fanciful  morality 
of  a  small  and  enthusiastic  body  may  be  interesting 
to  the  members  of  the  body  and  influential  on  their 
conduct ;  but  it  is  no  evidence  of  health  in  the  moral 
constitution  of  the  generation.     The  representation 


THE    CRADLE    OF    THE    CHRIST.  IO5 

of  the  Christian  warfare  as  a  conflict  "  not  against 
flesh  and  blood," — that  is,  against  organized  evil  in 
society  and  the  State, — ''  but  against  principalities, 
against  powers,  against  the  princes  of  darkness, 
against  wicked  spirits  that  dwell  in  the  air,"  is 
another  evidence  that  conscience  had  become  vision- 
ary. Such  reasoning  is  of  a  piece  with  the  argument 
for  there  being  four  gospels  and  no  more,  namely,  that 
there  were  four  quarters  of  the  heaven,  and  four 
winds  ;  or  with  the  argument  for  perpetual  virginity, 
that  it  supplied  the  Church  wdth  vestals.  Such  theol- 
ogising  shows  how  far  speculation  may  be  separated 
from  reality  and  yet  be  entertained  by  human  minds. 


VI  I. 

THE    LAST   GOSPEL. 

The  author  of  the  fourth  Gospel  is  unknown,  but 
it  is  incredible  that  this  wonderful  book,  wonderful 
for  finish  of  literary  execution  as  well  as  for  vigor  of 
intellectual  conception,  was  written  by  a  Galilean 
fisherman  ;  a  man  of  brooding  and  morbid  disposition, 
whose  intemperate  zeal  earned  for  him  the  title  "  son 
of  thunder  ; "  who,  according  to  Luke,  proposed  to 
call  down  fire  from  heaven  to  consume  certain 
Samaritans  that  declined  to  receive  the  master;  who, 
according  to  the  same  authority,  rebuked  certain 
others  that  conjured  by  the  Christ's  name,  but  did  not 
join  his  company;  who,  through  his  mother,  asked 
for  one  of  the  best  seats  in  the  "  kingdom  ;  "  a  man 
who  was  most  intimately  associated  with  the  James 
described  in  a  former  chapter;  a  man  who  late  in  life, 
had  a  reputation  for  intolerance  which  started  a 
tradition  of  him  to  the  effect  that  being  in  the  public 
bath,   and    seeing     enter  the    heretic    Cerinthus,   he 


THE    CRADLE    OF    THE    CHRIST.  10/ 

rushed  out,  calling  on  all  others  to  follow,  if  they 
would  not  be  overwhelmed  by  the  ruin  such  a  blas- 
phemer would  pull  down  on  their  heads.  All  the 
traditions  respecting  John  are  to  the  same  purport; 
his  constant  association  with  James  and  Peter,  both 
disciples  of  the  narrowest  creed ;  his  advocacy  of 
chiliasm,  the  doctrine  of  the  millennial  reign  of  a 
thousand  years,  as  testified  to  by  Ephesian  presby- 
ters on  the  authority  of  Irenaeus ;  the  description 
of  him,  reported  by  Eusebius,  as  a  "  high  priest  wear- 
ing the  mitre,"  standing  in  the  order  of  succession 
therefore  as  a  hierarch  of  the  ancient  dispensation,  a 
churchman  maintaining  the  ancient  symbolical  rites. 

That  such  a  composition  as  the  fourth  Gospel 
was  written  by  such  a  man,  in  his  old  age  too,  the 
laws  of  literary  criticism  cannot  admit.  To  the  pres- 
ent writer  the  ungenuineness  of  the  fourth  Gospel  has 
for  several  years  seemed  as  distinctly  proved  as  any 
point  in  literary  criticism  can  be.  To  maintain  the 
Johannean  origin  of  the  book,  it  must  be  assumed  that 
the  apostle  lived  to  an  extreme  old  age,  nearly  double 
the  full  three  score  years  and  ten  allotted  to  man- 
kind ;  that  his  entire  nature  changed  in  the  interval 
between  his  youth  and  his  senility  ;  that,  without 
studying  in  the  schools,  he  became  a  profound 
adept  in  speculative  philosophy  ;  and  that  by  the 
same  miraculous  bestowment,  he  acquired  a  skill  in 
letters  surpassing  that  of  any  in  his    generation,  far 


I08         THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

surpassing  that  of  Paul,  who  was  an  educated  man, 
and  completely  casting  into  the  shade  Philo,  the  best 
scholar  of  a  former  era.  All  this,  too,  must  be  as- 
sumed, for  there  is  not  a  fragment  of  the  evidence  to 
support  the  bold  presumption  of  authorship. 

The  book  belongs  nearer  to  the  middle  than  the 
beginning  of  the  second  century,  and  is  the  result  of 
an  attempt  to  present  the  Christ  as  the  incarnate 
Word  of  God.  The  author  is  not  obliged  to  go  far  to 
find  his  materials  ;  they  lie  ready  shaped  to  his  hand 
in  the  writings  of  Philo  and  the  Gnostics  of  his  cen- 
tury. The  thread  of  Hebrew  tradition,  has,  by  this 
time,  become  exceedingly  thin  ;  vestiges  of  the  pop- 
ular Jewish  conception  appear,  but  faintly,  here  and 
there.  Nicodemus  recognizes  the  divine  character  of 
the  Christ  by  his  power  to  work  miracles.  The 
Christ  respects  the  tradition  which  accorded  special 
privileges  to  the  genuine  "  children  of  Abraham  ;  "  he 
declares  to  the  woman  of  Samaria  that  *'  salvation  is  of 
the  Jews  ;"  he  announces  that  eternal  life  consists  in 
the  knowledge  of  God,  and  the  acceptance  of  his  Son. 
Moses  is  said  to  have  written  of  the  Christ.  Father 
Abraham  rejoiced  to  see  his  day.  Isaiah  sang  his 
glory,  and  spake  of  him.  The  brazen  serpent  is  a 
type  of  his  mission  to  deliver. 

For  the  rest,  the  conceptions  of  deity,  of  provi- 
dence, of  salvation,  of  the  eternal  world,  are  quire 
different  from  the  recognized  Hebrew  conceptions — 


THE    CRADLE    OF    THE    CHRIST.  IO9 

the  title  given  to  God  sixty  times  in  the  gospel, 
while  the  word  "  God,"  occurs  less  than  twenty,  is 
*'  Father,"  and  this  term  is  used,  not  in  the  sense  of 
Matthew's  "■  Our  Father  in  Heaven,"  which  describes 
the  Old  Testament  Jehovah  under  his  more  amiable 
aspect,  but  rather  as  designating  the  abyss  of  potential 
being,  as  the  term  is  employed  in  the  trinitarian 
formula,  in  which  the  Godhead  is  broken  up  into 
three  distinctions ;  the  declaration  "  God  is  Spirit," 
or,  as  the  language  equally  well  permits,  "  Spirit  is 
God,"  intimates  that  the  individuality  of  God  has 
disappeared,  that  the  idea  of  deity  has  become  intel- 
lectual. The  one  hundred  and  thirty-ninth  psalm 
expresses  perhaps  as  mystical  an  apprehension  of 
God  as  the  old  Hebrew  thought  admits  of,  but  that 
psalm  retains  the  divine  individuality  ;  the  limits  are 
nowhere  transgressed  ;  it  is  a  sympathetic,  regardful 
eye  that  searches  the  secret  place,  and  an  attentive 
mind  that  notes  the  unarticulated  thought.  The 
intelligence  loses  no  point  of  clearness  in  becoming 
penetrative.  But  in  the  fourth  Gospel,  the  individ- 
uality is  gone  altogether.  The  Father  "loveth,"  but 
with  an  abstract,  impersonal  sympathy  ;  the  Father 
"  draweth,"  but  with  an  organic,  elemental  attraction ; 
the  Father  "  hath  life  in  himself,"  and  hath  given  the 
Son  to  "have  life  in  himself;"  but  neither  the  pos- 
session nor  the  communication  of  this  power  implies 
the  bestowal  of  a  concrete  gift.     The  Father   "judg- 


no  THE    CRADLE    OF    THE    CHRIST. 

eth  no  man,  but  hath  given  all  judgment  to  the  Son" 
— a  phrase  intimating  that  he  had  gone  into  retire- 
ment, had  withdrawn  from  active  interest  in  human 
concerns,  had  sunk  into  the  depths  of  the  Absolute. 
The  expression  ''  God  is  Spirit,"  taken  alone,  conveys 
no  idea  that  is  not  contained  in  the  Hebrew  concep- 
tion of  the  formless  Jehovah  ;  but  when  taken  in  con- 
nection with  other  expressions,  it  is  seen  to  convey 
something  more,  and  something  different.  The 
formless  God  may  be  strictly  local ;  the  "Spirit  "  is 
diffused. 

In  this  book,  the  Christ  takes  the  place  of  God, 
as  the  revealed  or  manifest  God  ;  he  is  the  Los:os, 
the  incarnate  word.  He  was  with  God  in  the  begin- 
ning." " All  things  were  made  by  him."  "In  him 
was  life,  and  the  life  was  the  lisfht  of  men."  "  He 
hath  life  in  himself."  He  is  the  only  begotten  son, 
who  came  down  from  heaven;  he  is  in  heaven.  All 
judgment  is  committed  to  him  ;  in  him  the  divine 
glory  is  manifest ;  apart  from  him  is  no  spiritual  life  ; 
he  is  the  vine,  the  door ;  he  is  the  intercessor  through 
whom  prayer  must  be  transmitted  in  order  to  be 
made  availing. 

The  divine  presence  is  taken  out  of  nature,  and 
transferred  to  the  spiritual  world  ;  God  is  made 
ecclesiastical  and  dogmatic.  Men  are  saved,  not 
by  natural  piety  and  excellence,  but  by  faith  in  the 
Christ  as  the  Logos.     The  whole  sum  of  Christianity 


THE    CRADLE    OF    THE    CHRIST.  Ill 

is  conveyed  in  this  one  position  :  tJie  uianifcstatioji 
of  tJie  Divine  Glory  in  the  Only  Begotten  Son.  This 
manifestation  is  of  itself,  the  coming  of  salvation,  the 
gift  of  God's  life  to  mankind.  By  this,  the  Christ 
overcomes  the  powers  of  darkness  and  evil.  He  has 
come  a  light  into  the  world  ;  by  him  come  grace  and 
truth ;  to  believe  in  him  is  a  sign  of  God's  working. 
He  that  cometh  to  him  shall  never  hunger  ;  he  that 
believeth  on  him  shall  never  thirst.  It  is  enoucfh 
that  blind  men  believe  ;  to  die,  believing  in  him,  is  to 
live  ;  to  live,  believing  in  him,  is  to  be  saved  from 
the  power  of  death,  and  made  immortal.  To  believe 
in  him  is  the  same  thing  as  to  believe  in  the  Father. 
Not  to  believe  in  him,  is  to  be  consigned  to  spiritual 
death  with  sinners  ;  to  believe  on  the  Son  is  to  have 
everlasting  life.  This  idea  recurs  with  monotonous 
perseverance,  some  sixty  times. 

That  this  conception  of  the  Christ  is  not  original 
with  our  author  has  already  been  said  many  times. 
It  had  been  in  the  world  two  hundred  years  before 
his  day,  and  had  worked  its  way  into  the  substance  of 
the  later  Jewish  thought.  The  personification  of  the 
divine  reason  early  occurred  to  the  Jews  who  had 
been  touched  with  the  passion  for  speculation  in  the 
city  of  Alexandria.  Long  ago  attention  was  called  by 
Andrews  Norton,  among  ourselves,  to  bold  personifica- 
tions of  wisdom  and  the  divine  reason,  in  the  Apocry- 
pha of  the   Old  Testament.     "  She  is  the  breath  of 


112         THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

the  power  of  God,  a  pure  influence  proceeding  from 
the  glor}^  of  the  Almighty.  She  is  the  brightness  of 
the  everlasting  light,  the  unspotted  mirror  of  the 
power  of  God,  and  the  image  of  his  goodness."  Chap- 
ters seven  and  eight  of  the  Book  of  Wisdom  contain 
an  apotheosis  of  wisdom  as  the  creative  power.  In 
the  eighteenth  chapter  the  imagery  grows  much 
stronger.  "  Thine  almighty  word  leaped  down  from 
heaven  out  of  thy  royal  throne,  as  a  fierce  man-of- 
war  into  the  midst  of  a  land  of  destruction."  The 
twenty-fourth  chapter  of  Ecclesiasticus  is  devoted  to 
the  same  theme.  The  Word  is  described  as  a  being  : 
the  first  born  of  God  ;  the  active  agent  in  creation  ; 
having  its  dwelling-place  in  Israel,  its  seat  in  the  Law 
of  Moses. 

Philo  pushes  the  speculation  much  further.  The 
Logos  is  with  him  a  most  interesting  subject  of  dis- 
course, tempting  him  to  wonderful  feats  of  imagina- 
tion. There  is  scarcely  a  personifying  or  exalting 
epithet  that  he  does  not  bestow  on  the  divine  Reason. 
He  describes  it  as  a  distinct  being ;  calls  it  "  A 
Rock,"  "The  Summit  of  the  Universe,"  ''Before  All 
Things,"  "  First-begotten  Son  of  God,"  "  Eternal 
Bread  from  Heaven,"  "  Fountain  of  Wisdom,"  "Guide 
to  God,"  "  Substitute  for  God,"  "  Image  of  God," 
"  Priest,"  "  Creator  of  the  Worlds,"  "  Second  God," 
"  Interpreter  of  God,"  "  Ambassador  of  God,"  "Power 
of    God,"    "  King,"    "  Angel,"     "  Man,"    "  Mediator," 


THE    CRADLE    OF    THE    CHRIST.  II3 

"  Light,"  "The  Beginning,"  "The  East,"  "The  Name 
of  God,"  ''  Intercessor."  The  curious  on  this  subject 
may  consult  Liicke's  Introduction  to  the  Fourth  Gos- 
pel, or  Gfrorer's  Philo,  and  he  will  be  more  than  satis- 
fied that  the  Logos  of  the  fourth  Gospel  is  the  same 
as  Philo's,  and  has  the  same  origin. 

Christian  scholars  who  admit  this  have  been 
anxious  to  break  the  force  of  the  inference,  by  allow- 
ing the  similarity  of  the  conception  and  then  suppos- 
ing the  evangelist  to  have  stated  the  doctrine  that  he 
might  stamp  it  as  heresy.  But  he  nowhere  does 
stamp  it  as  heresy.  He  puts  it  boldly  on  the  front  of 
his  exposition  and  constructs  his  whole  work  in  con- 
formity with  it.  Instead  of  refuting  it  or  denouncing 
it,  he  carries  the  idea  out  in  all  its  applications,  sup- 
plementing it  with  a  completeness  that  Philo  never 
thought  of. 

The  Logos  becomes  a  man  ;  "  is  made  flesh  ;  " 
appears  as  an  incarnation  ;  in  order  that  the  God 
whom  "  no  man  has  seen  at  any  time,"  may  be  mani- 
fested. He  has  no  parentage ;  is  not  born,  even 
supernaturally ;  he  passes  through  no  childish  pas- 
sages ;  receives  no  nurture  in  a  home  ;  has  no  ex- 
perience of  growth  or  development.  The  incident  of 
his  baptism  by  John  in  the  sacred  river  is  carefully 
excluded,  that  whole  episode,  so  important  in  the 
earliest  narratives,  being   dismissed    in    the   phrase, 

"  Upon  whom  thou   shalt  see  the  spirit  descending, 

8 


I  14         THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

and  remaining  on  him,  the  same  is  he  that  baptizeth 
with  the  Holy  Ghost."  John  says  of  him:  "This  is 
he  that,  coming  after  me,  is  preferred  before  me,  for 
he  existed  before  me."  "  I  saw  the  spirit  descending 
from  heaven  like  a  dove,  and  it  abode  upon  him."  "  I 
knew  him  not,  but  came,  baptizing  with  water,  that  he 
might  be  made  manifest  to  Israel."  "I  am  a  voice 
crying  in  the  desert."  Every  word  negatives  the 
notion  that  the  Logos  received  consecration  at  the 
hands  of  a  prophet  of  the  old  dispensation.  He  is 
pre-existent ;  he  comes  from  heaven  ;  he  is  full  of 
grace  and  truth;  of  his  fulness  ah  have  received, 
grace  upon  grace. 

The  temptation  is  omitted  for  the  same  reason. 
The  divine  word  cannot,  even  in  form,  undergo  the 
experience  of  moral  discipline.  The  bare  suggestion 
of  evil  taint  is  foreign  to  him.  He  must  not  come 
near  enough  to  evil  to  repel  it.  A  dramatic  scene  in 
Matthew  represents  the  conflict  between  the  Messiah 
and  the  Prince  of  the  World  ;  a  conflict  inconceivable 
in  the  case  of  a  divine  being  who  is,  by  nature.  Lord 
of  the  entire  spiritual  universe, — whose  mere  appear- 
ance dispels  the  night. 

Even  the  story  of  the  transfiguration,  which  in 
some  respects  would  seem  admirably  illustrative  of 
the  logos  theory,  is  omitted,  probably  for  the  reason 
that  Moses  and  Ehas  are  the  prominent  personages 
in  it. 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST.         I  15 

As  a  thing  of  course,  the  agony  in  the  garden  of 
Gethsemane  is  unmentioned.  A  suggestion  of  it 
occurs  in  a  previous  chapter,  (XII.  27),  but  in  another 
connection,  and  for  an  opposite  purpose,  namely,  to 
extort  a  tribute  to  the  glory  of  the  Logos. 

The  cross  on  which  the  Word  is   suspended,  is 
transfigured  into  an   elevation  of  honor.     On  it  the 
Son  of  God  endures   no  mortal   agony;    by  it  he   is 
"lifted  up"  that  he  may  "draw  all   men  "  unto  him. 
His  crucifixion  is   a  consummation,  a  triumph.     He 
mounts,   shows    himself,    and   vanishes    away.      The 
suffering  is  an  appearance  of  suffering.     The  shame 
is  turned  to  glory.     The  tormentors  are  agents  in  ac- 
complishing a  transformation.     The  god  passes,  with- 
out a  groan  or  an  expression  of  weakness  ;  clear  as  ever 
in  his  perceptions,  seeing  his  mother  and  the  beloved 
disciple  standing  together,  he  says  :  "  woman,  behold 
thy  son ;  son,  behold  thy  mother."     Knowing  that  all 
things    were    now   accomplished,    that  the    scripture 
might  be  fulfilled,  he  said  ''  I  thirst ;  "  having  received 
the  vinegar,  he  remarked  "it  is  finished,"  bowed  his 
head,  and  gave   up  the  ghost.     From   his  dead  form 
issue  streams  of  water  and  blood,  a  last  sign,  as   the 
conversion  of  water  into  wine  was   the  first,  that  the 
dispensation    of   Law,    symbolized   by   John's   water 
baptism,  and  the  dispensation  of  the  spirit  symbolized 
by  wine  and  by  blood,  were  both  completed  in  him. 
The  resurrection  of  the  Christ  is  not  described  as 


Il6         THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

the  resurrection  of  a  body,  but  as  the  apparition  of  a 
spiritual  form.  It  is  not  recognized  by  Mary  through 
any  external  resemblance  to  a  former  self,  but  through 
a  spiritual  impression  ;  it  stands  suddenly  before  her, 
forbids  her  touch,  is  not  palpable,  and  as  suddenly  dis- 
appears ;  the  Logos  ascends  "  to  the  Father  ;  "  returns, 
bringing  the  spirit  that  he  had  promised  ;  enters  the 
chamber  where  the  disciples  are  gathered,  the  door 
being  carefully  closed  from  fear  of  the  Jews,  enters 
without  opening  the  door,  is  visible  for  an  instant, 
and  is  no  more  seen  ;  re-enters  for  the  purpose  of 
giving  palpable  demonstration  of  his  reality  to  the 
doubting  Thomas,  who,  however  does  not  accept  it, 
receives  the  skeptic's  homage  and  again  disappears. 

These  apparitions  and  occultations  are  frequent  in 
the  gospel,  the  Christ's  outward  form  being  only  a 
fagade,  removable  at  pleasure.  The  numerous  comings 
and  goings,  hidings,  disclosures,  presences,  absences, 
are  accounted  for  on  this  supposition,  better  than 
on  any  other.  He  goes  up  to  the  feast  at  Jerusalem, 
not  openly,  but  "as  it  were  in  secret,"  veiled,  disguis- 
ed. He  comes  before  the  crowd  many  of  whom  must 
have  been  familiar  with  his  person,  but  is  unrecog- 
nized ;  he  discloses  himself  for  a  moment,  speaks 
exciting  words  that  raise  a  tumult,  and  then,  at  the 
height  of  the  turmoil,  becomes  invisible.  "  They 
sought  to  take  him  ;  but  no  man  laid  hands  on  him, 
for  his  hour  zvas  not  yet  comeT     On  a  subsequent  oc- 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST.         II/ 

casion  his  hearers,  intensely  aroused  by  his  language, 
took  up  stones  to  cast  at  him  ;  but  he  "  hid  Jiiinsclf, 
and  went  out  of  the  temple,  going  tJuoiigh  the  midst 
of  them,  and  so  passed  by."  His  enemies  sought  to 
take  him,  but  "he  escaped  out  of  their  hands."  Hav- 
ing spoken,  he  departs,  and  hides  himself  ;  but  again, 
without  apparently  changing  his  locality  or  absenting 
himself  for  any  period,  he  is  again  heard  proclaiming 
his  mission. 

There  is  no  history  in  this  book.  The  incarnate 
Word  can  have  no  history.  His  career  being  theologi- 
cal, the  events  in  it  cannot  be  other  than  spectral. 
He  is  not  in  the  world  of  cause  and  effect.  His  ac- 
tions are  phenomenal ;  the  passages  of  his  life  do  not 
open  into  one  another,  do  not  lead  anywhere  ;  nothing 
follows  anything  else,  nothing  moves  ;  there  is  no 
progress  towards  development.  The  biography  is  a 
succession  of  scenes,  a  diorama.  There  are  no  se- 
quences or  consequences.  Stones  are  taken  up,  but 
never  thrown  ;  hands  are  uplifted  to  strike,  but  no 
blow  is  delivered.  The  movement  to  arrest  is  never 
carried  out.  The  miracles  are  not  deeds  of  power  or 
mercy,  they  are  signs,  thrown  out  to  attract  popular 
attention,  demonstrations  of  the  divine  presence  ;  some- 
times merely  symbolical  foreshadowings  or  interpreta- 
tions of  speculative  ideas,  as  in  the  case  of  the  turning 
of  water  into'  wine  at  the  "  marriage  feast ; "  the  open- 
ing of  the  blind  man's  eyes,  signifying   that  he  was 


Il8         THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

come  a  light  into  the  world ;  the  resurrection  of  Laza- 
rus, a  scenic  commentary  on  the  text,  "  I  am  the 
resurrection  and  the  life."  These  are  pictures  not  per- 
formances. None  of  them  are  mentioned  in  the  earlier 
traditions,  for  the  probable  reason  that  they  never  oc- 
curred, never  were  rumored  to  have  occurred.  They 
were  designed  by  the  artist  of  the  fourth  Gospel,  for 
his  private  gallery  of  illustrations.  The  artist  was  a 
Greek  Jew  who  took  Hebrew  ideals  for  his  models, 
but  he  was  sometimes  obliged  to  go  far  to  find  them. 
The  hint  for  the  conversion  of  the  water  into  wine, 
may  have  come  from  the  legends  of  Israelite  sojourn 
in  Egypt,  where  Moses,  the  first  deliverer,  turned 
water  into  blood,  the  mystical  synonym  of  wine ; 
Ehsha  may  have  furnished  a  study  for  the  elaborate 
picture  of  the  blind  man's  cure,  and  Isaiah  may  have 
supplied  the  motive  for  it,  in  his  famous  prophecy  that 
the  eyes  of  the  blind  shall  be  opened.  The  studies 
for  the  grand  cartoon  of  Lazarus  were  made  possibly 
while  the  artist  mused  over  the  stories  of  Elijah  rais- 
ing the  son  of  the  widow,  or  of  Elisha  reviving  one 
already  dead  by  mere  contact  with  his  bones. 

In  the  veins  of  the  Logos  flows  no  passionate  blood. 
His  language  is  vehement,  but  suggests  no  corres- 
ponding emotion  ;  the  words  are  not  vascular.  Cer- 
tain superficial  peculiarities  of  these  discourses  are 
noticeable  at  once,  their  length,  their  stateliness,  their 
absoluteness,  their  loud-voiced,  declamatory  character. 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST.         1 19 

their  oracular  tone.  But  little  scrutiny  is  required  to 
discover  that  they  are  monotones  ;  that  their  theme 
is  always  the  same,  namely,  the  claims  of  the  Clirist  ; 
that  they  unfold  no  system  of  moral  or  spiritual  teach- 
ing, proceed  in  no  rational  order,  arrive  at  no  conclu- 
sions ;  that  they  contain  no  arguments,  answer  no 
questions,  meet  no  inquiring  states  of  mind  ;  that  they 
resemble  orations  more  than  discourses  of  any  other 
kind,  but  are  unlike  orations,  in  having  neither  begin- 
ning middle  nor  end,  "in  quite  lacking  point  and  ap- 
plication, in  proceeding  no  whither,  in  simply  stand- 
ing still  and  reiterating  the  same  sublime  abstractions, 
without  regard  to  logical  or  rhetorical  proprieties. 

This  being  discovered,  the  conclusion  follows 
swiftly,  that  the  divine  Logos  could  not  discourse 
otherwise.  His  addresses,  like  his  deeds,  are  designed 
to  be  revelations  of  himself ;  expressions,  not  of  his 
thoughts,  but  of  his  being,  not  of  his  character,  but  of 
his  nature.  They  are  the  Word  made  articulate,  as 
his  wonders  are  the  Word  made  mighty,  as  his  form  is 
the  Word  made  visible.  A  humxan  being,  seeking  to 
convince,  persuade,  instruct  mankind,  will  from  neces- 
sity pursue  a  different  course  from  the  divine  Reason 
presenting  itself  to  "  the  world."  Its  very  audiences 
are  impersonal,  consisting  not  of  individuals  or  of 
parties,  but  of  abstractions  labelled  "  Jews,"  who  come 
like  shadows,  so  depart. 

So   unhuman   is    the  Christ,   so   entirelv  without 


120         THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

near  relations  with  mankind,  that  when  he  has  left 
the  world,  a  substitute  may  be  provided  for  him,  in 
the  shape  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  another  personality  pro- 
ceeding from  him  and  his  Father,  and  appointed  to 
complete  his  work  ;  to  reprove  the  world  of  sin,  of 
righteousness,  and  of  judgment  ;  to  guide  the  disci- 
ples into  all  truth  ;  to  bring  to  their  remembrance  all 
that  had  been  said  to  them  ;  to  comfort  them,  and 
abide  with  them  for  ever.  The  idea  loses  itself  in 
vagueness  at  times,  now  being  identified  with  the 
Christ,  now  appearing  as  a  Spirit  of  Truth,  now  being 
an  indwelling  presence,  now  an  effluence  from  the 
Logos.  But  all  the  while  something  like  an  individ- 
ual consciousness  is  preserved ;  the  spirit  is  as  pal- 
pable as  the  Logos  himself  was.  Here  is  already  the 
germ  of  a  trinity  maturing  within  the  bosom  of  the 
Hebrew  monotheism.  The  process  has  been  simple  ; 
the  consecutive  steps  have  been  inevitable.  But  in 
the  process  the  solid  ground  of  Judaism  has  been 
left ;  the  massive  substance  of  the  ancient  faith  has 
been  melted  into  cloud. 

How  entirely  nebulous  it  has  become  under  the 
action  of  speculative  mind  is  strikingly  apparent  on 
examination  of  the  ethical  characteristics  of  the 
fourth  gospel.  The  concrete  virtues  of  the  ancient 
race,  the  honest  human  righteousness  and  charity 
have  disappeared,  and  in  their  place  are  certain  spect- 
ral "graces"  which  have  quality  of  a  technical,  but 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST.         121 

little  of  a  human  sort.  That,  according  to  the  Logos 
doctrine  men  are  saved,  not  by  natural  goodness  or 
piety  but  by  faith  in  the  Christ,  is  written  all  over  the 
book.  But  this  is  not  the  point.  It  is  not  enough 
that  character  has  no  saving  power,  it  is  dispensed 
with ;  and  instead  of  it,  something  is  set  up  which 
possesses  none  of  the  elements  of  character.  The 
compact  principles  of  human  duty  which  hold  so  large 
a  place  in  the  old  Testament  scriptures,  and  are  so 
essential  in  the  earliest  Messianic  conception,  are  not 
found  here,  at  all.  The  sermon  on  the  mount  is 
omitted.  The  beatitudes  are  unmentioned.  The 
parables  are  not  remembered.  There  is  no  chapter  in 
the  book  that  bears  comparison  in  point  of  moral  vigor 
or  nobleness  with  the  twelfth  chapter  of  Romans,  or 
the  thirteenth  chapter  of  Corinthians.  Humanity  has 
shrunk  to  the  dimensions  of  an  incipient  Christen- 
dom. The  men  and  women  whom  the  Jesus  of  Mat- 
thew addresses,  to  whom  Paul  makes  appeal,  are  men 
and  women  no  more ;  not  even  Jews  by  race,  not 
even  a  knot  of  radical  Jews  ;  they  are  "  disciples," 
"  believers,"  "  brethren."  Christians,  not  fellow  men, 
are  to  love  one  another.  *'  So  shall  ye  be  my  disci- 
ples, if  ye  have  love  one  for  another."  "  By  this  shall 
all  men  know  that  ye  are  my  disciples."  Of  the  broad 
human  love,  the  recognition  of  brotherhood  on  the 
human  ground,  duty  to  love  those  who  are  not  disci- 
ples, there  is  not  a  word.     The  common /<;z/V/^,  not  the 


122         THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

common  natiwe,  is  the  bond.  The  promises  in  the 
fourteenth  chapter,  the  warnings  in  the  fifteenth,  the 
counsel  in  tne  sixteenth,  the  consecration  in  the 
seventeenth  are  all  for  the  believers,  not  for  the  doers  ; 
for  the  doers  only  so  far  as  they  are  believers,  and 
within  the  limits  of  the  believing  community.  The 
tender  word  "  love  "  shrinks  to  ecclesiastical  propor- 
tions. "  If  a  man  love  me  he  will  keep  my  words  ; 
and  my  Father  will  love  him,  and  we  will  come  to 
him,  and  make  our  abode  with  him  ; "  but  the  words 
are  not  words  of  exhortation  to  practical  righteous- 
ness, they  are  words  of  admonition  against  unbelief. 
"  If  ye  love  me,  keep  my  commandments ;  "  but  the 
commandments  are  not  the  wholesome  enactments  of 
the  Hebrew  decalogue,  but  a  bidding  to  "  walk  by  the 
light  while  ye  have  the  light,"  "  to  do  the  will  of  Him 
that  sent  me,"  which  is  "  to  believe  on  him  whom  He 
hath  sent."  "  He  that  believeth  not  is  condemned 
already  in  his  not  believing  in  the  only  begotten  Son 
of  God."  There  is  no  sweeter  word  than  ''love;" 
there  is  no  more  comprehensive  law  than  the  law  of 
love ;  but  when  love  is  changed  from  a  virtue  to  a 
sentiment,  and  when  the  duty  of  practising  it  is  lim- 
ited to  members  of  a  doctrinal  communion,  the  prac- 
tical issue  is  more  likely  to  be  sectarian  narrowness 
than  human  fellowship. 

As  the  speculation  rises  the  spectral  character  of 
the  morality  becomes  more  startling.     The  so-called 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST.         1 2$ 

epistles  of  John  carry  the  Logos  idea  considerably 
further  than  the  gospel  does.  The  mission  of  the 
Logos  is  more  sharply  discriminated.  He  is  described 
as  a  sin  offering.  ''  He  is  the  propitiation  for  our 
sins,  and  not  for  ours  only,  but  also  for  the  sins  of 
the  whole  world."  "  The  blood  of  Jesus  Christ 
cleanses  us  from  all  sin."  "  He  was  manifested  to  take 
away  our  sins,  and  in  Him  is  no  sin."  The  word 
"  manifested"  is  the  key  to  the  doctrine.  "  The  Son 
of  God  was  manifested  that  He  might  destroy  the 
works  of  the  devil."  It  is  the  same  conception  as  in 
the  gospel ;  the  Prince  of  Light  confronting  the  Prince 
of  Darkness,  shaming  him  and  attracting  away  his  sub- 
jects. The  anti-Christ  now  comes  into  view  ;  the  sin 
unto  death  is  named  ;  the  second  advent  is  announced, 
though  not  according  to  the  millennial  anticipations  of 
a  former  day.  "  He  that  denieth  that  Jesus  is  the 
Christ  is  a  liar."  "  Every  spirit  that  confesses  that 
Jesus  Christ  is  come  in  the  flesh  is  of  God."  "  Every 
spirit  which  confesseth  not  that  Jesus  Christ  is  come 
in  the  flesh  is  not  of  God."  Belief  or  unbelief  in  the 
incarnation  of  the  Logos  is  made  the  test  of  one's 
spiritual  relationship,  marking  him  as  a  candidate  for 
eternal  felicity  in  the  realm  of  the  blessed,  or  as  a 
victim  of  endless  misery  in  the  realm  of  Satan.  Thus 
the  very  heart  of  natural  goodness  is  eaten  out.  Of 
virtue  there  remains  small  trace.  A  great  deal  of  very 
strong  language  is   used  about   sin,  but  sins  are  not 


124         THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

particularized.  Sin,  as  an  abstraction,  a  principle,  a 
power,  a  force,  a  deep  seated  taint  in  the  nature, 
ineradicable  except  by  the  infusion  of  a  new  spirit  of 
life,  is  represented  as  the  dreadful  thing ;  and  Love, 
another  abstraction,  is  raised  to  honor  as  a  spiritual 
grace,  equally  unconnected  with  the  human  will. 
"  Beloved,  let  us  love  one  another ;  for  love  is  of  God, 
and  every  one  that  loveth  is  born  of  God  and  knoweth 
God.  He  that  loveth  not  knoweth  not  God,  for  God 
is  Love."  The  words  have  a  deep  and  tender  sound. 
But  the  consideration  that  '*  the  beloved  "  are  those 
only  who  confess  that  Jesus  Christ  is  come  in  the 
flesh,  that  all  others  are  the  reverse  of  "  beloved," 
causes  that  neither  the  depth  nor  the  sweetness  re- 
mains. The  love  does  not  mean  compassion,  or  pity, 
or  good-will,  or  helpfulness  ;  it  has  no  reference  to 
the  poor,  the  needy,  the  sick,  sorrowful,  wicked  ;  it 
has  no  downward  look,  is  destitute  of  humility,  is  as 
far  as  can  well  be  from  the  love  described  by  Paul  in 
his  perfect  lyric.  It  is,  we  may  say,  the  opposite  of 
that,  being  a  quality  that  distinguishes  the  elect  from 
the  non-elect,  and  makes  their  special  election  the 
more  sure. 

The  literary  character  of  the  fourth  gospel  must 
be  remarked  on  as  a  peculiar  indication  of  the  mental 
exhaustion  that  accompanies  the  last  stages  of  an 
intellectual  movement.  The  literature  of  the  century 
preceding  Jesus  fairly  throbs  with  personal  vitality. 


THE    CRADLE    OF    THE    CHRIST.  125 

It  is  scarcely  more  than  an  expression  of  individual 
energies.  The  earliest  writings  of  the  New  Testa^ 
ment,  the  genuine  letters  of  Paul,  are  animated  in 
every  line  by  his  own  vehement  personality ;  the 
speculative  portions  of  them  stir  the  blood,  so  real 
are  the  issues  presented,  so  vital  are  the  interests  at 
stake.  Shapeless,  and  sometimes  incoherent,  the 
thoughts  tumble  out  of  the  writer's  overcharged  heart. 
The  Christ  is  an  ideal  personage,  but  his  mission  is 
tremendously  real  ;  we  are  moved  by  a  battle  cry  as 
the  apostle's  ideas  burst  upon  us. 

The  literature  of  the  succeeding  period,  though 
more  elaborate  and  self-conscious,  bearing  traces  of 
reflection,  and  even  artifice  in  composition,  is  yet 
warm  with  the  presence  of  a  real  purpose.  But  the 
fourth  gospel  is  a  purely  literary  work ;  a  composition, 
the  production  of  an  artist  in  language.  Its  author, 
perhaps  because  he  was  simply  an  artist  in  language, 
is  unknown.  Trace  of  an  historical  Jesus  in  it  there 
is  none.  No  breath  from  the  world  of  living  men 
blows  through  it ;  no  stir  of  social  existence,  no  move- 
ment of  human  affairs  ruffles  its  calm  surface.  The 
people  are  not  real  people,  the  issues  are  not  real 
issues,  the  conflict  is  not  a  real  conflict.  We  have  a 
book,  not  a  gospel. 

The  writer  formally  announces  the  subject  of  his 
spiritual  drama,  and  then  proceeds  to  develop  it, 
according  to   approved  rules  of  literary   art.      First 


126         THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

comes  the  prologue,  setting  forth  in  a  few  sententious 
passages  the  cardinal  idea  of  the  piece.  This  occu- 
pies eighteen  verses  of  the  first  chapter,  and  is  followed 
by  the  introduction  of  John  the  Baptist  and  his  testi- 
mony. This  occupies  eighteen  verses  more.  The 
manifestation  of  the  Logos  to  the  first  company  of 
disciples  is  described  with  due  circumstance  in  the 
remainder  of  the  chapter.  The  symbolical  opening 
of  the  public  ministry,  at  Cana,  the  first  open  "mani- 
festation of  the  glory  "  in  the  miracle  of  turning  water 
into  wine,  by  which  is  signified  the  calling  to  substi- 
tute a  spiritual  for  a  natural  order,  occupies  the  first 
ten  verses  of  the  second  chapter.  Then  the  ministry 
of  revelation  begins,  with  signs  and  demonstrations. 
The  city  of  Jerusalem  is  chosen  as  the  scene  of  it ; 
and  the  scene  never  changes  for  longer  than  a  mo- 
ment, and  then  it  changes  without  historical,  or  bio- 
graphical motive.  The  cleansing  of  the  temple  is 
placed  at  the  beginning,  with  undisguised  purpose  to 
announce  his  claim,  and  the  dialectical  contest  is 
opened,  Nicodemus,  "  a  ruler  of  the  Jews,"  seeks  a 
nocturnal  interview,  betrays  the  ignorance  of  the  king- 
dom which  characterizes  all  save  the  regenerate,  even 
the  wisest,  and  gives  occasion  to  the  Christ  to  declare 
the  intrinsic  superiority  of  the  Son  of  God,  and  the 
conditions  of  salvation  through  him  ;  Nicodemus  fur- 
nishing the  .starting  point  for  a  lofty  declamation 
which   soars  beyond   him   into  the   region   of  trans- 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST.         12/ 

cendental  ideas.  The  Baptist,  instead  of  doubting, 
as  in  Matthew,  and  sending  an  embassy  to  the  Christ  to 
ascertain  the  reasons  of  his  not  disclosing  himself,  is 
himself  questioned  by  skeptical  disciples,  and  re- 
assures them  bywords  that  are  an  echo  of  the  Christ's 
own. 

The  interview  with  the  woman  of  Samaria  is 
introduced  for  the  purpose  of  extracting  another  con- 
fession of  the  Christ's  supremacy  from  a  different 
order  of  mind,  Nicodemus  represented  Judaism  in 
its  pride  of  authority  and  learning.  The  woman  of 
Samaria  represents  the  ignorant,  superstitious,  yet 
stubborn  idolatry  reckoned  by  the  Jews  as  no  better 
than  heathenism  ;  her  "  five  husbands  "  are  the  five 
sects  into  which  Judaism  was  divided.  She  too  is 
pictured  to  us  as  sitting  by  a  well  and  drazving  zvater. 
The  conversation  begins  with  the  Christ's  declaration 
of  his  power  to  create  perennial  springs  of  water  in 
the  heart,  and  leads  immediately  up  to  the  great  dis- 
closure of  himself.  Superstition,  like  superciliousness, 
listens  and  is  persuaded.  The  mention  of  Galilee  is 
necessary  to  account  for  the  episode  in  Samaria,  but 
nothino;  occurs  there.  The  next  scene  is  laid  as^ain 
in  Jerusalem.  The  water  oi  Bethesda  is  brought  into 
competition  with  the  quickening  spirit  of  the  Christ  ; 
the  cure  of  the  sick  man  introduces  a  mystical  dis- 
course on  the  spiritual  sufficiency  of  the  Son  of  God 

Another  scene   is   presented,  and  once   more  in 


128         THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

Jerusalem.  Another  series  of  tableaux  is  arranged. 
This  time  the  Christ  is  pictured  as  breaking  bread 
and  ivalking  on  zvater,  whence  occasion  is  taken  to 
descant  on  the  bread  of  life.  For  the  purpose  of  mak- 
ing a  fresh  appearance  in  Jerusalem,  and  presenting 
his  claim  under  a  new  aspect,  Galilee  is  called  into 
requisition  again,  but  as  usual,  the  drama  is  enacted 
in  Jerusalem,  which  is  the  centre  of  the  opposition. 
This  time,  the  Christ,  having  declined  to  go  up  in  his 
own  character  to  meet  his  critics,  goes  up  in  disguise, 
incognito,  and  amazes  the  congregated  multitude  by 
his  superb  assumptions  of  authority,  and  his  over- 
whelming denunciations  of  all  who  do  not  receive 
him  ;  denunciations  so  uncompromising,  that  dissen- 
sions are  created.  "  Some  would  have  taken  him,  but 
none  laid  hands  on  him."  As  always,  the  demon- 
stration results  in  bringing  out  his  friends  and  ene- 
mies, in  showing  who  were  and  who  were  not  his 
own,  which  is  the  aim  and  end  of  every  manifestation. 
The  Logos  presents  himself,  makes  his  statement, 
asserts  his  prerogative,  offers  the  alternative  of  spirit- 
ual life  or  death,  and  retires,  leaving  the  result  to  the 
spiritual  laws. 

The  story  of  the  woman  taken  in  adultery  which 
immediately  follows  this  passage,  probably  made  no 
part  of  the  original  gospel,  as  it  appears  out  of  all 
connection.  It  is  pronounced  by  some  of  the  best 
critics   to  be  un genuine.     The  obvious  improbability 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST.         1 29 

of  its  incidents,  the  locality  of  it, — the  Mount  of  Olives, 
— the  Christ's  mysterious  proceeding  of  writing  on  the 
ground,  and  his  unaccountable  verdict,  deprive  the 
tale  of  all  but  literary  interest.  It  is  interesting  in  a 
literary  point  of  view,  or  would  be  if  it  were  set  in 
literary  relations ;  for  it  illustrates  the  Christ's  suprem- 
acy, his  supernatural  power  of  rebuke  and  insight, 
his  authority  to  grant  absolution  on  purely  theological 
grounds.  The  doctrine  that  none  but  the  guiltless 
are  entitled  to  pronounce  sentence  on  guilt  would  put 
an  end  to  censorship  of  every  kind,  but  is  quite  in 
accordance  with  the  ethical  tone  of  the  book.  The 
author  however,  turns  the  incident  to  no  account,  but 
proceeds  with  new  scenes  in  his  speculative  drama. 
"  I  am  the  light  of  the  world  ;  he  that  followeth  me 
shall  not  walk  in  darkness,  but  shall  have  the  light  of 
life  ; "  the  Christ  enters  once  more  into  the  old  debate, 
once  more  the  claim  is  challenged,  once  more  the 
angry  discussion  flows  on,  becoming,  at  this  juncture 
more  violent  than  ever  ;  terrible  denunciations  leap 
from  the  divine  lips ;  the  adversaries  are  called  a 
devil's  brood,  liars,  murderers  at  heart.  At  the  close 
of  the  final  outburst,  the  unseen  hands  raise  the 
visionary  stones,  but  "Jesus  hid  himself,  went  out  of 
the  temple,  going  through  the  midst  of  them,  and  so 
passed  by." 

The  speech  however  is  continued  ;  the  main  doc- 
trine of  it,  namely  that  the  Christ  is  the  Light  of  the 

9 


130         THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

World,  being  illustrated  by  the  miracle  of  giving 
sight  to  a  man  "  blind  from  his  birth," — the  story 
being  told  at  great  length  and  with  exceedingly 
minute  detail,  so  as  to  cover  every  point  of  circum- 
stance. This  seems  to  be  a  critical  moment  in  the 
development  of  the  idea.  The  vehemence  subsides 
for  a  time,  and  the  light  of  the  world  shines  gently  as 
a  shepherd's  lantern  showing  wandering  sheep  the 
way  to  the  true  fold.  But  the  softest  word  stirs  up 
anger  ;  the  "  Jews"  take  up  stones,  not  to  throw  them, 
but  to  exhibit  temper,  and  the  act  closes  tranquilly 
like  those  that  preceded  it. 

The  resurrection  of  Lazarus  prepares  the  way  for 
the  closing  scenes.  That  such  a  story,  so  artificially 
constructed,  so  evidently  introduced  for  effect,  told 
by  one  writer  and  not  as  much  as  alluded  to  by  the 
others,  told  with  so  much  circumstance  and  with  so 
little  regard  for  biographical  probability,  told  for  a 
dogmatical  purpose,  and  fitted  into  the  narrative  at 
the  precise  juncture  where  a  turning  point  was 
wanted,  should  be  accepted  as  history  by  any  unfet- 
tered mind  ;  that  a  critic  like  Renan,  professing  a 
profound  reverence  for  the  character  of  Jesus,  should 
have  admitted  it  as  in  some  sense  true,  and  should 
have  been  driven  in  explanation  of  it  to  a  theory  utterly 
fatal  to  the  moral  character  of  the  "colossal"  man  he 
celebrates,  thus  sacrificing  the  moral  greatness  of  Jesus 
to  a  perverse  sense  of  historical   truth,  proves  the 


THE    CRADLE    OF    THE    CHRIST.  I3I 

obstinacy  of  traditional  prejudice.  The  narrative  is 
too  evidently  a  literary  device,  one  would  think,  to 
deceive  anybody  of  awakened  discernment.  Its  mani- 
fest artifice  is  such  that  it  alone  would  be  enough  to 
cast  suspicion  on  all  the  miraculous  narrations  of  the 
book. 

"  From  that  day  forth  the  Jews  took  counsel  to- 
gether to  put  him  to  death."  The  crisis  has  come, 
and  events  hasten  on  towards  the  catastrophe,  which, 
as  has  been  said,  was  no  catastrophe,  but  a  consum- 
mation. Mary,  instead  of  sitting  at  his  feet  as  a  dis- 
ciple, anoints  them  with  spikenard  and  wipes  them 
with  the  hair  of  her  head ;  the  holy  woman  perform- 
ing the  act  elsewhere  ascribed  to  a  sinner,  the  act 
itself  being  a  ceremony  of  consecration,  instead  of  a 
mark  of  penitence.  The  triumphal  entry  into  Jeru- 
salem, elsewhere  described  as  the  Messiah's  own 
project,  is  converted  into  a  spontaneous  demonstra- 
tion in  his  honor,  rendered  by  "  much  people,"  who 
had  heard  that  Jesus  was  coming  to  Jerusalem.  "  Cer- 
tain Greeks"  present  themselves  and  ask  an  intro- 
duction, as  to  a  royal  personage.  They  are  the  first 
fruits  of  the  Gentile  world  ;  their  coming  is  welcom.ed 
as  a  sign  of  final  victory.  "  The  hour  is  come,"  says 
Jesus,  on  receiving  them,  "  that  the  Son  of  Man  should 
be  glorified.  The  heavens  echo  his  exclamation ;  an 
audible  voice,  interpreted  as  the  voice  of  an  angel, 
pronouncing  the  glorification  certain  and  eternal.    The 


132         THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

Son  of  God  adds  his  own  interpretation,  confirming 
that  of  his  friends  ;  prophesies  the  speedy  judgment 
of  the  world  and  his  own  elevation  to  glory  by  means 
of  the  cross,  makes  his  last  statement,  and  the  dia- 
lectical war  is  at  an  end. 

The  rest  of  the  life  is  given  to  the  disciples.  The 
last  supper,  its  agony  and  distress  of  mind  omitted,  is 
an  occasion  for  impressing  on  "his  own"  the  lesson 
of  mutual  love.  The  departure  of  Judas  on  his  errand 
is  the  signal  for  a  burst  of  rapture.  Words  of  con- 
solation, mingled  with  promises  of  the-"  Spirit  of 
Truth,"  "  The  Comforter,"  words  of  blessing  too  fol- 
low, intended  to  beget  in  his  friends  the  feeling  that, 
though  absent,  he  will  still  be  present  with  them. 
They  are  bidden  to  remember  him  as  the  source  of 
their  life ;  are  admonished  to  keep  unbroken  the  spir- 
itual bond  that  unites  them  to  him  in  vital  sympathy ; 
are  assured  that  the  mission  he  came  to  earth  to  dis- 
charge will  be  fulfilled  by  the  Holy  Ghost ;  and  finally 
are  solemnly  consecrated  by  priestly  supplication  as 
the  rescued  children  of  God, 

The  story  of  the  arrest  is  told  in  a  strain  equally 
suited  to  the  idea  on  which  the  book  is  constructed.  In 
full  consciousness  of  his  position,  Jesus  steps  forth  out 
of  the  shadow  of  mystery  to  meet  Judas  and  his  troop, 
who  have  come,  expecting-  to  find  him  in  his  garden 
retreat.  The  soldiers,  over-awed  by  the  apparition, 
start  backward  and  fall  to  the  ground,  prostrate  before 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST.         1 33 

the  Son  of  God.  The  trial  goes  on  before  Annas  and 
Caiaphas,  priests,  and  Pilate,  Roman  viceroy.  The 
powers  of  Church  and  State  pronounce  on  him  ;  be- 
fore the  powers  of  Church  and  State  he  announces  _ 
himself  and  makes  his  royal  claim.  In  the  presence 
of  the  High  Priest,  who  is  scarcely  more  than  a  name 
in  this  proceeding,  introduced  in  order  that  Judaism 
might  have  one  more  opportunity  of  rejecting  the 
majesty  of  heaven,  Jesus  suffers  an  indignity  at  the 
hands  of  one  of  the  prelate's  ofificers  ;  but  Pilate,  the 
pagan,  shudders  before  the  awful  personage  who  tells 
him  that  he  could  have  no  power  at  all  except  it  were 
given  him  from  above  ;  that  he  was  but  a  tool  of  provi- 
dence. The  guilt  of  the  execution  is  thus  transferred 
from  his  shoulders  to  destiny;  for  the  Jews,  no  less 
than  the  governor,  are  fated.  The  hour  of  glorifica- 
tion has  come,  and  the  Son  of  Man  moves  with  stately 
step  towards  his  ascension. 

The  process  of  withdrawal  from  the  visible  sphere 
has  already  been  described.  It  is  not  effected  at 
once.  As  a  lantern  in  the  hand  of  one  walking  in 
a  wood  flashes  out  and  again  hides  itself,  becom- 
ing dimmer  and  dimmer  until  finally  it  quite  dis 
appears,  so  the  Son  of  God  is  many  times  visible 
and  invisible  before  he  vanishes  altogether  from  sight. 
No  bodily  ascension  is  necessary  to  bear  away  one 
whose  coming  and  going  are  not  conditioned  by 
space  or  time.     His  form  has  always   been  a  trans- 


134         THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

lucent  veil,  which  could  at  pleasure  be  removed.  His 
mission  ended,  there  is  no  more  occasion  for  his  self- 
revelation,  and  he  is  unseen.  The  unreality  of  a 
representation  like  this  must  be  too  apparent  to  be 
argued. 

From  this  exposition  it  appears  that  the  New  Testa- 
Uicnt  literature  is,  i^i  some  sort,  to  the  end,  a  continua- 
tion of  the  literature  of  the  Old  Testament.  As  the 
earliest  phase  of  Christianity  was  Judaism,  with  a  belief 
in  the  Messiah's  advent  superadded,  so  the  first  litera- 
ture of  Christianity  is  the  literature  of  Judaism,  written 
on  the  supposition  that  the  Christ  has  come.  Judaism 
is  Christianity  still  expectant  of  a  Christ  to  come,  or,  as 
with  the  radical  Jews,unexpectan  t  of  a  personal  Messiah ; 
Christianity  is  Judaism  with  the  expectation  fulfilled. 
The  Judaic  element  was  not  limited  to  the  little  knot  of 
Jerusalemites  who  hung  about  the  holy  city  and  waited 
there  for  the  Christ's  coming ;  it  was  conspicuous  in 
the  system  of  Paul,  and  so  far  from  being  absent  from 
the  later  form,  known  by  the  name  of  John,  deter- 
mines the  cardinal  idea  of  that,  and  shapes  its  bent. 
Whatever  additions  are  made,  grow  out  of  this  car- 
dinal idea,  as  branches  from  its  stem.  The  strict 
monotheism  of  the  Hebrew  faith  is  sacrificed  to  the 
Messianic  conception.  The  Christ  in  time  becomes  a 
twin  Deity,  a  Holy  Ghost  being  required  to  fill  up  the 
gulf  between  godhead  and  humanity. 

But    for  the  fury  of  the  discord  that  arose  and 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST.         1 35 

deepened  between  the  Jews  wdio  accepted  the  Christ 
and  the  Jews  who  preferred  still  to  wait  for  him,  the 
later,  as  well  as  the  earlier  form  of  Christianity,  might 
possibly  have  been  merged  in  Judaism.  The  believers 
in  the  Messianic  advent  were  radical  to  the  point  of 
fanaticism.  They  were  the  restless  advocates  of 
change,  agitators,  revolutionists.  Their  passionate 
zeal  could  not  brook  indifference  or  coolness.  Nothing- 
short  of  a  fervid  allegiance  satisfied  them.  The  re- 
cusants had  to  bear  hard  names,  as  the  gospels  at- 
test. The  ill-fortune  of  the  Messiah,  the  bitter 
opposition  he  encountered,  his  untimely  death,  were 
charged  upon  the  faithlessness  of  the  nation  who 
would  not  confess  him.  These,  and  not  the  Roman 
Government  that  actually  put  him  to  death,  were  held 
answerable  for  his  crucifixion ;  thus  a  discord  was 
planted,  which  all  the  generations  of  Christendom 
have  failed  to  eradicate.  There  has,  from  that  time 
to  this,  been  implacable  hatred  between  Christian 
and  Jew. 

The  separation,  which  might  have  been  healed  or 
obliterated,  had  this  been  the  sole  cause  of  it,  was 
widened  by  the  subsequent  breach  between  the  chris- 
tians themselves,  which  drew  attention  off  from  the 
previous  issue.  The  position  taken  by  Paul,  that 
the  mission  of  the  Christ  was  extended  to  the  Gentiles 
and  comprehended  them  on  precisely  the  same  con- 
ditions with   the  Jews,  was  exceedingly  disagreeable 


136         THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

and  even  shocking  to  the  conservatives,  who  held  that 
the  Christ  was  sent  to  Israel  only,  and  especially  to 
that  portion  of  Israel  that  clung  tenaciously  to  the 
traditions  of  the  law.  The  necessary  criticism  of  the 
Law  which  Paul's  position  required,  the  apparent 
disrespect  shown  to  Moses  and  the  prophets,  the 
disregard  of  the  ancestral  claim  set  up  by  the  "  chil- 
dren of  Abraham,"  the  substitution  of  an  interior 
principle — faith — which  any  heathen  might  adopt,  for 
the  old  fashioned  legal  requirements  to  which  none 
but  orthodox  Jews  could  conform,  was  hardly  less  than 
blasphemous  in  their  regard ;  and  a  feud  was  begun, 
which  in  violence  and  rancor,  excelled  the  quarrel 
between  the  orthodox  christians  and  the  Jews.  The 
traces  of  this  controversy,  plainly  marked  in  the  writ- 
ings of  Paul,  are  visible  on  the  literature  of  his  own 
and  of  the  succeeding  period,  and  disappear  only  in 
the  events  of  greater  significance  incident  to  the  fall 
of  Jerusalem,  the  complete  dispersion  of  the  Jews,  and 
the  blending  of  parties  in  the  Western  Empire. 
Ferdinand  Christian  Baur  may  have  pushed  too  far 
in  some  directions,  his  theory  that  the  entire  gospel 
literature  of  the  New  Testament  was  determined  as  to 
its  form  by  the  exigencies  of  this  controversy,  the  can- 
onical books  of  Matthew,  Mark,  Luke,  and  the  "  Acts 
of  the  Apostles "  all  being  written  in  the  interest 
of  reconciliation ;  but  his  fundamental  position,  as  in 
the  case  of  Strauss,  has  never  been  carried,  or  even 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST.         13/ 

shaken,  by  assault.     The  extreme  points   in    contro- 
versy are  fixed  with  a  good  deal  of  certainty.     Paul's 
own  statement  in  the  second  chapter  of  Galatians  is 
fairly  explicable  only  on  the  supposition  of  a  violent 
collision,  the  nature   of   which  is  there  defined,    the 
bearings  of  which  are  indicated  in  that  and  in  other 
undoubted  writings    of  the  apostle.     Many  passages 
therein    are   unintelligible  on  any  other   hypothesis. 
The  Apocalypse  and  the  Epistle  of  James,  as  clearly 
set  forth  the  opposite  view,  in  language  and  implication 
of  the  strongest  kind,  and  in  a  spirit   of  decided  an- 
tagonism.    The  "  Acts  of  the  Apostles  "   is,  as  else- 
where hinted,    prepared   with  a   view    of   making   it 
appear  that  no  controversy  existed  ;  that  Peter  carried 
the  gospel  to  the  Gentiles,  and  that  Paul  insisted  on 
the  validity  of  circumcision,  the  mark  of  initiation  into 
the  Jewish   church.     The  narrative  is  so  forced,  the 
incidents  so  artificial,  the  aim  so  evident,  the  limitation 
of  view  so  marked,  that  the  book  betrays  its   own 
character.     To  admit  the  genuineness  of  the  "  Acts  " 
is   to  throw  into   confusion  the  little  history  that  we 
certainly  know,  and  to  unfix  the  continuity  of  events. 
How  far  the  three  first  gospels  correspond  in  purpose 
with  the  "  Acts,"  is  a  nice  question,  which  need  not 
be  answered  here,    which    may  be   left    unanswered 
without  detriment  to   the   soundness   of  the   general 
theory.  Whether  or  no  the  controversy  was  of  such  ab- 
sorbing moment,  whether  or  no  it  lasted  as  long  as  Baur 


138  THE    CRADLE    OF    THE    CHRIST. 

believes,  or  exerted  as  wide  an  influence  on  literature, 
its  effect  in  drawing  the  thoughts  away  from  the 
earlier  dispute  between  the  Messianic  and  the  anti- 
Messianic  Jews,  and  in  detaching  the  christians  from 
their  original  associations  is  unimpaired.  From  the 
breaking  out  of  that  dispute,  which  occurred  within 
fifteen  or  twenty  years  of  th?  crucifixion,  at  the  la'iest, 
Christianity  followed  its  own  law  of  development. 

But,  though  thus  discarded,  disowned,  finally 
detested,  the  very  name  of  Jew,  as  early  as  the  fourth 
gospel,  being  associated  with  a  stiff-necked  bigotry 
impenetrable  to  conviction,  the  old  religion  main- 
tained its  sway  over  the  child  that  had  taken  its  portion 
of  goods  and  gone  away  to  make  a  home  of  its  own. 
The  Palestinian  and  Asiatic  literature  of  the  young 
faith  bears  the  stamp  of  its  Hebrew  lineage,  as  has 
been  shown.  The  Christ  sprung  from  its  bosom,  was 
instructed  in  its  schools,  was  glorified  through  its 
imagination.  The  resurrection  was  its  prophecy; 
the  heaven  to  which  he  ascended  was  of  its  building 
and  coloring  ;  the  throne  whereon  he  seated  himself 
was  of  its  construction;  the  Father  at  whose  right 
hand  he  reigned  was  its  own  ancient  deity.  His 
very  name,  the  name  he  continues  to  bear  to  this  day, 
— Messiah — is  the  name  whereby  she  loved  to  de- 
scribe her  own  ideal  man.  In  the  depth  of  his  degra- 
dation, in  the  heat  of  his  persecution,  in  the  agony  of 
his  despair,  the  Jew  could  reflect  that  his   relentless 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST.         1 39 

oppressor  owed  to  him  the  very  faith  he  was  com- 
pelled to  curse.  The  victim  was  the  conqueror.  The 
reflection  may  still  have  been  bitter ;  whatever  sweet- 
ness it  brought  was  flavored  with  vengeance,  except  in 
the  greatest  souls  who  loved  their  religion  better  than 
their  fame. 


VIII. 

THE  WESTERN  CHURCH. 

Our  story  is  not  yet  told.  As  regards  the  New 
Testament  books,  though  the  genius  that  produced 
them  was  Eastern,  the  judgment  that  brought  them 
together  in  a  single  collection  was  Western.  No  list 
of  the  New  Testament  books  pretending  to  carry 
weight  was  made  until  the  year  360.  For  two  cen- 
turies and  a  half  there  was  no  Christian  bible.  The 
canon,  as  it  now  stands,  was  fixed  by  Pope  Innocent 
I.,  A.  D.  405,  by  a  special  decree.  Why  precisely 
these  books  were  selected  from  the  mass  of  literature 
then  in  existence  and  use,  is — except  in  two  or  three 
cases  where  the  prevailing  sentiment  of  the  actual 
Church  threw  out  a  book  like  Enoch  or  kept  in  a 
book  like  the  Apocalypse — still  open  to  conjecture. 
In  such  a  dilemma  Schwegler's  conjecture,  that  the 
irenical  or  reconciling  books  were  retained,  and  the 
partisan  writings  dropped,  is  as  plausible  as  any, 
perhaps  more  so.  The  Church  of  Rome  had  two 
patron    saints  —  Peter   and   Paul  ;    it   claimed    to   be 


THE    CRADLE    OF    THE    CHRIST.  I4I 

founded  by  both  Apostles,  and,  on  this  principle, 
adopted  its  canon  of  scripture.  The  New  Testa- 
ment, by  its  arrangement,  was,  it  is  claimed,  an  ex- 
pression in  literature  of  the  Catholic  claim. 

As  regards  the  Christ  idea,  though  formed  in  the 
East,  the  West  gave  it  currency,  made  it  the  central 
feature   of  a  vast  religious   system,  crowned  it  and 
placed  it  on  a  throne.     Had  the  creative  thought  of 
Judaism  been  confined  to  the  East,  our  concern  with 
it  need  have  gone  no  further.     But  the  thought  was 
not  confined  to  the  East,  even  in  the  widest  compre- 
hension of  that  term.     The  Jews  were  everywhere. 
The  repeated  disasters  which  befel  their  country  gave 
fresh  impulse  to  their  creed.     Their  ideas  spread  as 
their  state  diminished ;  and  their  ideas  were  so  vital 
that  they  captured  and  engaged  the  floating  specula- 
tions of  the  Gentile  world  whenever  they  were  en- 
countered.    In  Alexandria,  where  Jews  had  been  for 
two  hundred  and  fifty  or  three  hundred  years,  and 
whither  they  flocked  by  thousands  after  each  fresh 
national  disaster,   the  faith,   instead  of  being   extin- 
guished  by    the    flood    of    speculation  in   that   busy 
centre   of  the  world's  thought,   revived,  drew  in  co- 
pious supplies  of  blood  from   the   Greek  spirit,  and 
entered  on  a  new  career.     If  it  be  true,  as  is  declared 
in  Smith's   Dictionary  of  Geography,  that  when  the 
city  of  Alexandria  was  founded  (B.  C.  332)  it  was  laid 
out  in  three  sections,  one  of  which  was  assigned   to 


142         THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

the  Jews,  their  political  and  social  influence  must 
have  corresponded  to  their  numbers.  Prof.  Huide- 
koper  revives  and  reargues  the  belief,  that  travelled 
men  of  letters  from  Greece,  preeminent  among  them, 
Plato,  who  visited  Egypt,  borrowed  from  the  Jews 
the  ideas  which  ennobled  and  beautified  the  Greek 
philosophy.  The  doctrines  of  the  Stoics,  Greek  and 
Roman,  bear,  in  Mr.  Huidekoper's  opinion,  evident 
marks  of  Jewish  origin.  This  is  going,  we  think, 
beyond  warrant  of  the  facts.  We  may  claim  much 
less  and  still  place  very  high  the  intellectual  sway  of 
this  remarkable  people.  It  may  be  confidently  as- 
serted, that  in  portions  of  Asia  Minor,  Syria,  and 
Northern  Egypt,  their  faith  had  largely  displaced  the 
ancient  superstitions. 

The  splendid  literature  of  the  Apocrypha,  Eccles- 
iasticus  and  Wisdom,  the  rich  fund  of  speculation  in 
the  Talmud,  the  intellectual  wealth  of  Philo,  the 
Pauline  and  Johannean  Gnosis,  brilliantly  attest  their 
intellectual  vigor.  The  Rev.  Brooke  Foss  Walcott, 
in  Smith's  "  Dictionary  of  the  Bible,"  declares,  that 
from  the  date  of  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  in  the 
year  70,  the  power  of  Judaism  "  as  a  present  living 
force,  was  stayed."  But  such  a  statement  can  be 
accepted  only  in  a  much  qualified  sense.  The  de- 
struction of  Jerusalem  put  an  end  to  the  State  more 
completely  than  the  overthrow  of  any  modern  city 
could  do ;   for  the  holy  city  was   the  home   of  the 


THE    CRADLE    OF    THE    CHRIST.  I43 

national  life  in  a  peculiar  sense  ;  it  was  the  seat  of 
the  national  worship  in  which  the  national  life  cen- 
tred. With  the  temple  fell  the  institutions  that 
rested  on  the  temple.  When  the  walls  were  thrown 
down  and  the  grand  buildings  levelled,  it  was  like 
erasing  the  marks  of  history,  tearing  up  the  roots  of 
tradition  and  setting  the  seal  of  destiny  on  the 
nation's  future.  The  territory  was  small ;  the  power 
of  the  great  city  was  felt  in  every  part  of  it,  and  the 
quenching  of  its  light  left  the  land  in  darkness.  But 
the  catastrophe  which  terminated  the  existence  of 
the  State,  gave  a  new  life  to  the  religious  idea  and 
opened  a  new  arena  for  its  conquests.  It  greatly 
increased  the  number  of  Jews  in  the  city  of  Rome, 
the  imperial  city  of  the  West,  the  conquering  metrop- 
olis ;  raised  the  congregations  already  existing  there 
to  a  position  of  considerable  importance  ;  served  to 
unite,  by  the  sympathy  of  a  common  sorrow,  parties 
that  had  been  divided  ;  had  the  effect  in  some  meas- 
ure to  weaken  antipathies,  harmonize  opinions  and 
inflame  zeal ;  in  a  word,  transferred  to  Italy  the 
faith  that,  in  outward  form,  had  been  crushed  in 
Palestine.  Thenceforth  Judaism,  which  had  been  a 
blended  worship  and  polity,  ceased  to  be  a  polity, 
and  became  more  intensely  than  ever,  because  more 
exclusively,  a  worship. 

The  history  of  the  settlement  of  Jews  in  Rome, 
is  naturally  obscure.     Being  mainly  of  the  mercantile 


144         THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

and  trading  class  their  presence  there  might  have 
been  expected  early.  They  were  restless,  enterpris- 
ing, industrious,  eager  and  skilful  in  barter  ;  and  Rome 
attracted  all  such,  being  the  business  centre  of  the 
western  world.  Political  affairs  at  home  were  never 
long  favorable  to  peaceful  pursuits,  and  were  frequent- 
ly in  such  confusion  that  the  transactions  of  ordinary 
existence  were  precarious.  The  numbers  that  were 
carried  away  to  Babylon  comprised  it  is  probable  the 
more  eminent  class.  As  many,  if  not  more,  found 
their  way  to  other  cities,  and  of  these  Rome  received 
its  share.  The  earliest  mention  brings  them  before 
us  as  already  of  consequence  from  their  wealth  and 
intelligence.  Sixty  years  before  the  christian  era, 
Cicero  commended  Lucius  Valerius  Flaccus,  praetor 
of  the  district  of  Asia  Minor,  because  he  did  not  en- 
courage an  exorbitant  expenditure  of  money  on  the 
construction  of  the  temple,  by  Jews,  the  exportation 
of  whose  wealth  from  Rome  was  felt  as  an  evil.  He 
states  that  under  the  directions  of  Flaccus,  one  hundred 
pounds  weight  of  gold  (1^25,000)  had  been  seized  at 
Apamea,  in  Asia  Minor  ;  twenty  pounds  at  Laodicea. 
The  Jews  were  rich.  Their  demonstrations  of  grief 
at  the  death  of  Julius  Caesar,  the  conqueror  of  their 
conqueror,  Pompey,  and  the  enlightened  friend  of  the 
people,  argued  by  the  number  and  loudness  of  the 
voices,  the  presence  of  a  multitude.  One  may  read 
in   any   book    of  Jewish    history  that  Josephus   reck- 


THE    CRADLE    OF    THE    CHRIST.  I45 

oned  at  eight  thousand  the  Jews  who  were  present,, 
when  at  the  death  of  king  Herod,  his  son  Archelaus 
appeared  before  Augustus  ;  that  the  poor  among 
them  were  numerous  enough  to  procure  from  Augus- 
tus a  decree  authorizing  them  to  receive  their  share 
of  the  bounty  of  corn  on  another  day,  when  the 
day  of  genera]  distribution  fell  on  their  Sabbath  ;  that 
one  emperor  expelled  them  as  a  dangerous  element  in 
the  city;  that  another  for  the  same  reason  laid  spe- 
cial penalties  and  burdens  on  them  ;  that  the  aristo- 
cratic party  was  steadily  hostile  to  them.  Tacitus, 
their  enemy,  speaks  of  the  deportation  of  four  thou- 
sand young  Israelites  to  Sardinia.  Josephus  makes 
the  astounding,  the  fabulous  statement  that  in  the  year 
66,  the  Jews  in  Rome  required  two  hundred  and  fifty- 
six  thousand  lambs  for  their  paschal  commemoration.* 
Such  a  provision  would  imply  a  population  of  two 
million  and  a  half  at  least.  That  the  Jews  were  of 
some  importance  is  attested  by  the  comments  made 
on  them  by  Roman  writers  ;  by  Martial,  who  alludes 
to  their  customs  in  his  epigrams  ;  by  Ovid,  who  crit- 
icises their  observance  of  the  Sabbath  as  having  the 
character  of  a  debasing  superstition  and  introduces  a 
shirk  who,  having  exhausted  all  pretexts,  makes  a 
pretext  of  respecting  the  Sabbath  in  order  not  to  in- 
cur the  ill  will  of  the  Jews  ;  by    Persius,  who  remarks 

*BelIum  Judaicum,  VII.  17. 
10 


146         THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

satirically  on  the  Sabbath  observances  and  the 
rite  of  circumcision ;  by  Plutarch,  who  minutely 
describes  the  Mosaic  system  of  laws.  Satire  be- 
trays fear  as  well  as  dislike.  The  great  writer  dis- 
dains to  caricature  people  who  are  inconspicuous. 
Juvenal  was  a  great  writer,  and  his  envenomed  raillery 
against  the  Jews  has  become  familiar  by  quotation. 
It  would  seem,  from  his  invectives,  that  Jewish  ideas 
and  practices  had  crept  into  public  approval,  and 
were  exerting  an  influence  on  the  education  of  Roman 
youth.  He  complains  bitterly  of  parents  who  bring 
up  their  children  to  think  more  of  the  laws  of  Moses 
than  of  the  laws  of  their  country. — "  Some  there  are, 
assigned  by  fortune  to  Sabbath  fearing  fathers,  who 
adore  nothing  but  the  clouds  and  the  genius  of  the 
sky  ;  who  see  no  distinction  between  the  swine's  flesh 
as  food  and  the  flesh  of  man.  Habitually  despising 
the  laws  of  Rome,  they  study,  keep  and  revere  the 
code  of  Judoea,  a  tradition  given  by  Moses  in  a  dark 
volume.  The  blame  is  with  the  father,  with  whom 
every  seventh  day  is  devoted  to  idleness,  and  with- 
drawn from  the  uses  of  life."  Juvenal  lived  in  the 
latter  part  of  the  first  and  the  early  part  of  the  second 
century,  about  a  generation  after  the  destruction  of 
Jerusalem.  Admitting  the  genuineness  of  the  pas- 
sage, and  the  ground  of  the  criticism,  neither  of  which 
is  disputed,  the  influence  of  the  Jews  was  by  no 
means  contemptible. 


THE    CRADLE    OF    THE    CHRIST.  I47 

Milman  conjectures  that  while  the  number  of 
Jews  in  Rome  was  much  increased,  their  respectabil- 
ity as  well  as  their  popularity  were  much  diminished 
by  the  immense  influx  of  the  most  destitute  as  well  as 
of  the  most  unruly  of  the  race,  who  were  swept  into 
captivity  by  thousands  after  the  fall  of  Jerusalem. 
This  may  be  true.  There  is  reason  to  believe  that 
the  importation  of  so  great  a  number  of  strangers 
was  attended  by  poverty,  distress,  and  squalor,  hor- 
rible to  think  of.  It  could  not  have  been  otherwise. 
That  they  should  infest  and  infect  whole  districts  of 
the  city  ;  that  they  should  pitch  their  vagabond  tents 
on  vacant  plots  of  ground,  and  should  change  fair  dis- 
tricts, gardens  and  groves  into  disreputable  and  foul 
precincts  ;  that  they  should  resort  to  mean  trades  for 
support,  peddling,  trafficking  in  old  clothes,  rags, 
matches,  broken  glass,  or  should  sink  into  mendi- 
cancy, is  simply  in  the  nature  of  things.  But  it  is  fair 
to  suppose  that  the  exiles  from  Jerusalem  would  bring 
with  them  the  memory  of  their  sufferings  during  the 
unexampled  horrors  of  that  tremendous  war  ;  would 
bring  with  them  also  a  fiercer  sense  of  loyalty  to  the 
faith  for  which  such  agonies  had  been  borne,  such 
sacrifices  had  been  made.  That  they  held  their 
religion  dear,  is  certain.  Their  Sabbaths  were  ob- 
served, their  laws  revered,  their  synagogues  fre- 
quented, their  peculiarities  of  race  cherished  and 
perpetuated  by  tradition  from  father  to  son.    There  is 


148         THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

reason  to  think  that  they  anticipated  the  Christians 
in  their  practice  of  burying  their  dead  in  the  cata- 
combs, which  bore  a  strong  resemblance  to  the  rocky 
caverns  where  in  the  fatherland,  their  ancestors  were 
laid.  The  catacombs  in  the  neighborhood  of  the 
Transtevere,  the  district  where  the  Jews  mostly  lived, 
are  plainly  associated  with  them.  The  seven- 
branched  candlestick  appears  on  the  wall,  and  the  in- 
scriptions bear  witness  to  the  pious  constancy  of  the 
race.*  They  made  proselytes  among  the  pagans 
weary  of  their  decrepit  and  moribund  faiths,  and  thus 
extended  the  religious  ideas  which  they  so  tenaciously 
held.  Among'themselves  there  was  close  association, 
partly  from  tradition  and  partly  from  race.  Some 
semblance  of  their  ancient  institutions  was  kept  up  ; 
their  general  council ;  their  tribunal  of  laws.  Cir- 
cumstances alone  prevented  them  from  maintaining 
their  ancestral  religion  in  its  grandeur.  Seneca, 
about  the  middle  of  the  first  century,  represents  Jew- 
ish usages  as  having  pervaded  all  nations ;  he  is 
speaking  of  the  Sabbath.  Paul  found  thriving  syna- 
gogues, wherever  he  went,  and  wrote  to  some  that  he 
could  not  visit,  before  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem 
made  the  final  dispersion. 

The  Messianic  hope  was  strong  in  these  people  ; 
all  the  stronger  on  account  of  their  political  degrada- 
tion.    Born  in  sorrow,  the  anticipation  grew  keen  in 
*  See  Milman's  Jews,  II.  p.  461. 


THE    CRADLE    OF    THE    CHRIST.  I49 

bitter  hours.  That  Jehovah  would  abandon  them, 
could  not  be  believed.  The  thought  would  be  atheism. 
The  hope  kept  the  eastern  Jews  in  a  perpetual  state 
of  insurrection.  The  cry,  "  lo  here,  lo  there ! "  was 
incessant.  The  last  great  insurrection,  that  of  Bar- 
Cochab,  revealed  an  astonishing  frenzy  of  zeal.  It 
was  purely  a  Messianic  uprising.  Judaism  had  excited 
the  fears  of  the  Emperor  Hadrian,*  and  induced  him 
to  inflict  unusual  severities  on  the  people.  He  had 
forbidden  circumcision,  the  rite  of  initiation  into  their 
church  ;  he  had  prohibited  the  observance  of  the 
Sabbath  and  the  public  reading  of  the  law,  thus  dry- 
ing up  the  sources  of  the  national  faith.  He  had  even 
threatened  to  abolish  the  historical  rallying  point  of 
the  religion  by  planting  a  Roman  colony  on  the  site 
of  Jerusalem  and  building  a  shrine  to  Jupiter  on  the 
place  where  the  temple  had  stood.  Measures  so 
violent  and  radical  could  hardly  have  been  prompted 
by  anything  less  alarming  than  the  upspringing  of 
that  indomitable  conviction  which  worked  at  the 
heart  of  the  people.  The  effect  of  the  violence  was 
to  stimulate  that  conviction  to  fury.  The  night  of 
their  despair  was  once  more  illumined  by  the  star  of 
the  east.  The  banner  of  the  Messiah  was  raised. 
Portents  as  of  old  were  seen  in  the  sky  ;  the  clouds 
were  watched  for  the  glory  that  should  appear.  Bar- 
Cochab,  the  "  son  of  the  star,"  seemed  to  fill  out  the 
*  See  Huiclekoper's  "Judaism  in  Rome,"  p.  325-329. 


150         THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

popular  idea  of  the  deliverer.  Miracles  were  ascribed 
to  him  ;  flames  issued  from  his  mouth.  The  vulgar 
imagination  made  haste  to  transform  the  audacious 
fanatic  into  a  child  of  David.  Multitudes  flocked  to 
his  standard.  "The  whole  Jewish  race  throughout 
the  world,"  says  Milman,  "was  in  commotion;  those 
who  dared  not  betray  their  interest  in  the  common 
cause  openly,  did  so  in  secret,  and  perhaps  some  of 
the  wealthy  Jews  in  the  remote  provinces  privately 
contributed  from  their  resources."  "  Native  Jews 
and  strangers  swelled  his  ranks.  It  is  probable  that 
many  of  the  fugitives  from  the  insurgents  in  Egypt 
and  Cyrene  had  found  their  way  to  Palestine  and  lay 
hid  in  caves  and  fastnesses.  No  doubt  some  from  the 
Mesopotamian  provinces  came  to  the  aid  of  their 
brethren."  "  Those  who  had  denied  or  disguised  their 
circumcision,  hastened  to  renew  that  distinguishing 
mark  of  their  Israehtish  descent,  to  entitle  themselves 
to  a  share  in  the  great  redemption."  The  insurrec  - 
tion  gained  head.  The  heights  about  Jerusalem  were 
seized  and  occupied  ;  fortifications  were  erected ; 
caves  were  dug,  and  subterranean  joassages  cut  be- 
tween the  garrisoned  positions  ;  arms  were  collected  ; 
nothing  but  the  "  host  of  angels  "  was  needed  to  in- 
sure victory.  The  angels  did  not  appear  ;  the  Roman 
legions  did.  The  carnage,  during  the  three  or  four 
years  of  the  war — for  so  long  and  possibly  longer,  the 
war  lasted — was  frightful.     The  Messiah,  not  proving 


THE    CRADLE    OF    THE    CHRIST.  I5I 

himself  a  conqueror,  was  held  to  have  proved  himself 
an  impostor,  the  "  son  of  a  lie."  The  holy  city  was 
once  more  destroyed,  this  time  completely.  A  new 
city,  peopled  by  foreigners,  arose  on  its  site.  The 
effect  of  the  outbreak,  which  was  felt  far  and  wide,  in 
time  and  space,  was  disastrous  to  Jewish  influence  in 
the  empire.  From  this  time  Judaism  lost  its  good 
name,  and  at  the  same  time  its  hold  on  the  cultivated 
mind  of  Europe.  Fanaticism  so  wild  and  destructive 
was  entitled  to  no  respect. 

The  Christians,  of  course,  took  no  part  in  the  great 
rising,  and  had  no  interest  in  it.  It  was  their  faith 
that  the  Messiah  had  already  come  ;  and  however  con- 
fident their  expectation  of  his  reappearance  to  judge 
the  nations  and  redeem  his  elect,  time  had  so  far 
sobered  the  hopes  of  even  the  rudest  among  them,  that 
they  no  longer  looked  for  a  man  of  war,  no  longer 
were  attracted  by  banners  in  the  hands  of  ruffians  or 
trumpet  blasts  blown  by  human  lips.  The  feeling  was 
gaining  ground,  if  it  was  not  quite  confirmed,  that  in- 
stead of  waiting  for  the  Christ  to  come  to  them,  they 
were  to  go  to  him  in  his  heaven.  Hence,  Jews, 
though  they  might  be  in  the  essentials  of  their  reli- 
gious faith,  they  were  wholly  alienated  from  those  of 
their  race  who  looked  for  a  cosmical  or  political  de- 
monstration. That  this  want  of  sympathy  and  failure 
to  participate,  widened  the  breach  between  them  and 


152  THE    CRADLE    OF    THE    CHRIST. 

the  Jews  who  still  expected  a  temporal  deliverer,  there 
can  be  little  question  ;  that  in  times  of  great  excite- 
ment, the  Christian  Jews  were  exposed  to  scoffing 
and  persecution  is  equally  undeniable.  Bar-Cochab 
treated  them  with  extreme  cruelty.  It  is  even  prob- 
able that  in  Rome  and  the  provinces  of  the  empire  a 
settled  hatred  of  the  Christians  animated  Jews  of  the 
average  stamp,  and  found  expression  in  the  usual 
forms  of  popular  malignity.  It  is  easy  to  believe  that 
Jews  in  Rome,  possessing  influence  in  high  quarters, 
thrust  Christians  between  themselves  and  persecution. 
This,  indeed,  is  extremely  probable.*  But  that,  in  or- 
dinary times,  an  active  animosity  prevailed  on  the 
part  of  the  Jews  of  the  old  school  against  Jews  of  the 
new  school,  is  not  clearly  proved.  The  latter  were 
orthodox,  conservative  Jews,  loyal  to  the  national  faith 
in  every  respect  save  one,  namely,  their  persuasion 
that  the  Christ  was  no  longer  to  be  looked  for,  having 
already  appeared.  To  those  Jews,  who  had  abandon- 
ed the  belief  that  he  would  appear,  or  who  had  allowed 
that  belief  to  sink  into  the  background  of  their  minds, 
the  belief  of  the  Christians  would  occasion  no  bitter- 
ness. It  is  still  a  common  impression  that  the 
persecution  recorded  in  the  book  of  "  The  Acts  of 
the  Apostles,"  to  which  Stephanos,  the  Greek  convert, 
fell  a  victim,  was  directed  by  Jews  against  Christians. 

*  See  "Judaism  in  Rome,"  p.  245. 


THE    CRADLE    OF     THE    CHRIST.  I53 

But  it  has  been  made  to  appear  more  than  probable, 
— admitting  the  historical  truth  of  the  narrative — 
that  the  assault  was  made  by  the  Judaizing  upon  the 
anti-Judaizing  Christians  ;  the  Jews  who  were  not 
Christians  at  all,  taking  no  part  in  it.  The  reasoning 
upon  which  this  conclusion  is  based,  will  be  found  in 
Zeller's  book  on  the  **  Acts,"  an  exhaustive  treatise 
which  must  be  studied  by  anybody  who  would  under- 
stand that  curious  composition.  The  main  positions 
may  be  apprehended  by  the  intelligent  reader  on 
carefully  perusing  the  story  as  written,  and  noting  the 
conspicuous  fact,  that  the  quarrel  is  between  radicals 
and  conservatives  ;  between  the  advocates  of  a  broad 
policy,  comprehending  Greeks  and  Romans  on  the 
same  terms  with  Jews,  and  the  champions  of  a  re- 
stricted policy,  confining  the  benefits  of  the  Messiah's 
advent  to  the  true  Israelites. 

The  destruction  of  Jerusalem  was  one  of  the 
causes  that  may  have  operated  to  close  this  gulf.  By 
breaking  up  the  head-quarters  of  the  Christian  con- 
servatism, and  dispersing  the  lingerers  there  among 
tne  inhabitants  of  Gentile  cities,  it  weakened  their 
ties,  widened  their  experience,  softened  their  prejudi- 
ces, and  prepared  them  to  accept  the  larger  interpre- 
tation of  their  faith.  The  writings  of  the  New  Tes- 
tament, all  of  them  produced  after  the  destruction  of 
Jerusalem,  some  of  them  fifty  or  sixty  years  after, 
none   of  them  less  than   ten   or  fifteen   years,   bear 


154         THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

traces  of  this  enlargement.  The  Jewish  christians 
living  in  Greek  and  Roman  Cities  could  hardly  avoid 
the  temptations  to  adopt  that  view  of  their  faith 
which  commended  it  to  the  communities  whereof  they 
were  a  part,  and  this  was  the  view  presented  by  Paul 
and  his  school,  the  intellectual,  or,  as  some  prefer  to 
call  it,  the  "  spiritual  "  view.  According  to  this  view, 
also,  the  new  religion  was  grafted  on  the  old,  Judaism 
was  the  foundation  ;  the  root  from  which  sprung  the 
branches,  however  widely  spreading.  Paul,  as  has 
been  remarked,  addressed  himself  invariably  to  Jews, 
in  the  first  instance,  and  turned  to  the  Gentiles  only 
when  the  Jews  rejected  him.  The  essential  beliefs 
of  the  religious  Jew  he  retained,  never  exchanging 
them  for  the  beliefs  of  Paganism,  or  qualifying  them 
with  the  speculations  of  heathen  philosophy.  He 
labored  in  the  interest  of  the  faith  of  Israel,  broadly 
interpreted,  nor,  in  respect  of  his  fundamental  con- 
ceptions, did  he  ever  wander  far  from  the  religion  of 
his  fathers.  The  spiritual  distance  between  the 
school  he  founded,  and  the  school  that  in  his  life 
time  he  opposed,  was  not  so  wide  that  it  might  not 
in  course  of  time,  be  diminished,  until  at  length  it 
disappeared  entirely.  Parties  holding  the  same  car- 
dinal belief,  will  not  forever  be  separated  by  inciden- 
tal barriers,  especially  when,  as  was  the  case  with  the 
destruction  of  Jerusalem,  providence  moves  the  chief 
barriers  away. 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST.         1 55 

Other  inducements  to  a  good  understanding 
between  the  two  parties  of  Christian  Jews  were  at 
work.  Heresies  of  all  sorts  were  springing  up  with- 
in the  churches,  which  could  be  suppressed  only  by 
the  moral  power  of  a  common  persuasion  in  the 
minds  of  the  chief  bodies.  Questions  were  raised 
which  neither  branch  of  the  christian  community 
could  satisfactorily  answer ;  controversies  arose, 
demanding  something  like  an  ecclesiastical  authority 
to  adjust.  Unless  the  new  religion  was  to  split  into 
petty  sections  and  be  pulverized  to  nothingness,  the 
restoration  of  old  breaches  was  an  absolute  neces- 
sity. The  danger  was  of  too  sudden  and  artifi- 
cial a  compromise  between  the  main  divisions,  re- 
sulting in  a  compact  organization  that  might  arrest 
the  movements  of  the  spirit  of  liberty.  The 
church  did  eventually  obtain  supremacy  in  dogma 
and  rite,  through  the  imperative  demand  for 
unity  that  was  urgently  pressed  early  in  the  second 
century. 

Judaism  contained  in  its  bosom  two  elements,  one 
stationary,  the  other  progressive ;  one  close,  the 
other  expansive ;  one  centralizing  in  Judaea  and 
waiting  till  it  should  attract  the  outer  world  to  it, 
the  other  forth  reaching  beyond  Palestine,  and  seek- 
ing to  commend  the  faith  of  Israel  to  those  who 
knew  it  not.  These  two  elements  coexisted  from 
early  times,   and  caused  perpetual  ferment  by  their 


156         THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

struggles  to  overmaster  each  other.  The  priest 
stood  for  the  one  principle,  the  narrower,  the  fixed, 
the  instituted  ;  the  propliet  stood  for  the  otlier,  the 
intellectual,  the  expansive,  the  progressive.  The 
priest  stayed  at  home  to  administer  the  ordinances  ; 
the  prophet  journeyed  about,  to  spread  the  salva- 
tion. The  priest  was  a  fixture,  the- prophet  was  a 
missionary. 

The  two  divisions  of  the  earliest  Christian  com- 
munity represented  these  counter  tendencies.  The 
school  of  Peter,  James,  and  John,  the  hierarchial, 
conservative  school,  maintained  the  attitude  of  ex- 
pectation. They  waited  and  prayed,  exacted  rigid 
compliance  with  ordinances ;  clung  to  their  associa- 
tions with  places  and  seasons  ;  were  tenacious  of 
holy  usages  ;  required  punctuality  and  accuracy  of 
posturing,  were  strict  in  conformity  with  legal  pres- 
criptions, made  a  point  of  circumcision,  or  other  rites 
of  initiation  into  the  true  church.  The  school  of  Paul 
and  Apollos  took  up  the  principle  of  universality, 
dispensed  with  whatever  hampered  their  movements 
and  impeded  their  action,  and,  taking  essential  ideas 
only,  making  themselves  "  all  things  to  all  men,  if 
peradventure,  they  might  win  some,"  preached  the 
message  freely,  to  as  many  as  would  hear.  The  two 
principles,  however  discordant  in  operation,  demand- 
ed each  other.  They  could  not  long  exist  apart ;  the 
unity  and  the  universality  were  mutually  complement- 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST.         1 5/ 

ary.  Unity  alone,  would  bring  isolation,  solitariness, 
and  iiUimate  death  from  diminution.  Universality 
alone  would  lead  to  dissipation,  attenuation,  and  dis- 
appearance. It  was  therefore  not  long  before  the 
extremes  drew  together  and  met. 

Lecky,  the  historian  of  European  morals,  assigns 
as  a  reason  why  the  Jews  in  Rome  were  less  vehe- 
mently persecuted  than  the  Christians,  that  "  the 
Jewish  religion  was  essentially  conservative  and 
unexpansive.  The  Christians,  on  the  other  hand, 
were  ardent  missionaries."  Would  it  not  be  more 
exact  to  say  that  the  Jews  of  one  school  were  essen- 
tially conservative  and  unexpansive  ;  that  the  Jews  of 
another  school  were  ardent  missionaries  ?  That  the 
one  school  should  be  persecuted,  while  the  other  was 
left  in  peace,  was  perfectly  natural,  especially  in  com- 
munities where  their  essential  identity  was  not 
understood.  There  is  no  necessity  for  supposing 
that  the  tv/o  faiths  were  actually  distinguished 
because  one  attracted  attention  and  provoked  attack, 
while  the  other  did  nothing  of  the  kind.  Not  history 
only,  but  common  observation  furnishes  abundant 
examples  of  faiths  fundamentally  the  same,  meeting 
very  different  fortunes,  according  to  the  attitude 
which  circumstances  compelled  them  to  assume. 
The  Christians  might  have  presented  the  aggressive 
front  of  Judaism,  as  Paul  did,  and  still  not  have 
forfeited  their  claim  to  be  true  children  of  Israel. 


158         THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

There  is,  in  fact,  no  doubt  that  discerning  persons 
perceived  the  substantial  identity  of  the  two  religions. 
It  is  conceded  on  all  sides,  by  Jewish  and  by  Chris- 
tian writers, — Milman  and  Salvador,  Jost  and  Meri- 
vale,  corroborating  one  another,  —  that  Jews  were 
taken  for  Christians  and  Christians  for  Jews.  They 
were  subjected  to  the  same  criticism  ;  they  were  ex- 
posed to  the  same  contumely.  Indeed  it  may  be 
questioned  whether  the  early  persecutions  that  were 
inflicted  on  the  Christians  were  not  really  directed 
against  the  Jews,  whose  reputation  for  restlessness 
and  fanaticism,  for  stiffness  and  intolerance,  was 
established  in  the  minds  of  all  classes  of  society.  The 
Jews  were  a  mark  for  persecution  before  there  was  a 
Christian  in  Rome,  before  the  Christian  era  began. 
They  were  persecuted  on  precisely  the  same  pretexts 
that  were  used  in  the  case  of  the  Christians.  They 
had  a  recognized  locality,  standing  and  character. 
They  were  many  in  number  and  considerable  in  in- 
fluence. The  lower  orders  disliked  their  austerity  ; 
the  higher  orders  dreaded  their  organization  ;  philoso- 
phers despised  them  as  superstitious  ;  politicians 
hated  them  as  intractable  ;  emperors  used  them  when 
they  wished. to  divert  angry  comment  from  their  own 
acts.  They  were  "  fair  game  "  for  imperial  pursuit. 
A  raid  on  the  Jews  was  popular.  It  is  possible,  to 
say  the  least,  that  the  Christians  would  have  passed 
unmolested  but  for  their  association  with  the  Israel- 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST.         1 59 

ites.     This  is  no  novel  insinuation  ;  Milman  hinted  at 
it  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago,  in  his  "  His- 
tory of  Christianity."     ''  When  the  public  peace  was 
disturbed  by  the  dissensions  among  the  Jewish  popu- 
lation of  Rome,  the  summary  sentence  of  Claudius 
visited  both  Jews  and  Christians  with  the  same  in- 
different severity.     So  the  Neronian  persecution  was 
an  accident  arising  out  of  the  fire  at  Rome  ;  no  part 
of  a  systematic  plan  for  the  suppression  of  foreign 
religions.     It  might  have  fallen  on  any  other  sect  or 
body  of  men  who  might  have  been  designated  as  vic- 
tims  to    appease    the   popular   resentment.     Accus- 
tomed to  the  separate  worship  of  the  Jews,  to  the 
many,  Christianity  appeared  at  first  only  as  a  modifica- 
tion of  that  belief."*     The  same  conjecture  is  more 
boldly  ventured  in  the  History  of  Latin  Christianity. 
"What  caprice   of  cruelty  directed  the  attention  of 
Nero  to  the  Christians,  and  made  him  suppose  them 
victims  important  enough  to  glut  the  popular  indigna- 
tion at  the  burning  of  Rome,  it  is  impossible  to  deter- 
mine.    The  cause  and  extent  of  the   Domitian  perse- 
cution is  equally  obscure.     The  son  of  Vespasian  was 
not  likely  to  be  merciful  to  any  connected  with  the 
fanatic  Jews."     "  At  the  commencement  of  the  second 
century,  under  Trajan,  persecution  against  the  Chris- 
tians is  raging  in  the   East.     That,  however,  (I  feel 

*  History  of  Christianity,  11  ;  p.  8. 


l60         THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

increased  confidence  in  the  opinion),  was  a  local,  or 
rather  Asiatic  persecution,  arising  out  of  the  vigilant 
and  not  groundless  apprehension  of  the  sullen  and 
brooding  preparation  for  insurrection  among  the 
whole  Jewish  race  (with  whom  Roman  terror  and 
hatred  still  confounded  the  Christians),  which  broke 
out  in  the  bloody  massacres  of  Cyrene  and  Cyprus, 
and  in  the  final  rebellion,  during  the  reign  of  Hadrian, 
under  Bar-Cochab."  *  If  the  Christians  made  them- 
selves particularly  obnoxious,  they  did  so  by  their 
zeal  for  beliefs  which  they  shared  with  the  Jews  and 
derived  from  them  ;  beliefs  in  the  personality  of  God, 
the  immediateness  of  Providence,  the  law  of  moral 
retribution,  and  the  immortal  destinies  of  the  human 
soul.  Their  belief  in  the  ascended  and  reigning 
Christ  gave  point  to  their  zeal ;  but  the  Jews,  too, 
clung  to  their  hope  of  the  Christ,  and  through  the 
vitality  of  their  hope  were  known. 

The  importance  ascribed  to  Christianity  as'  a 
special  moral  force  working  in  the  constitution  of  the 
heathen  world,  is,  by  recent  admission,  acknowledged 
to  have  been  much  exaggerated.  The  chapter  on 
"The  state  of  the  world  toward  the  middle  of  the  first 
century  "  in  Renan's  "Apostles,"  sums  up  with  singu- 
lar calmness,  clearness  and  easy  strength,  the  in- 
fluences that  were  slowly  transforming  the  social  con- 

*  Vol.  I. ;  p.  528. 


THE    CRADLE    OF    THE    CHRIST.  l6l 

ditioii  of  the  empire ;  the  nobler  ideas,  the  purer 
morals,  the  amenities  and  humanities  that  were  steal- 
ing in  to  temper  the  violence,  mitigate  the  ferocity, 
soften  the  hardness  and  uplift  the  grossness  of  the 
western  world.  Samuel  Johnson's  little  essay  on 
**  The  Worship  of  Jesus"  is  a  subtle  glance  into  the 
same  facts,  tracing  the  efficacy  of  powers  that  co- 
operated in  producing  the  atmospheric  change  which 
was  as  summer  succeeding  winter  over  the  civilized 
earth.  Mr.  Lecky,  with  broader  touch,  but  accurately 
and  conscientiously,  paints  a  noble  picture  on  the 
same  subject.  But  other  artists,  of  a  different  school, 
make  the  same  representation.  Merivale,  lecturing 
in  1864,  on  the  Boyle  foundation,  in  the  Chapel 
Royal,  at  Whitehall,  on  the  "  Conversion  of  the 
Roman  Empire,"  in  the  interest  of  the  christian 
Church,  says,  "  the  influence  of  Grecian  conquest 
was  eminently  soothing  and  civilizing  ;  it  diffused  ideas 
of  humanity  and  moral  culture,  while  the  conquerors 
themselves  imbibed  on  their  side  the  highest  of  moral 
lessons,  lessons  of  liberality,  of  toleration,  of  sympathy 
with  all  God's  human  creation."  "  Plutarch,  in  a  few 
rapid  touches,  enforced  by  a  vivid  illustration  which 
we  may  pass  over,  gives  the  picture  of  the  new  hu- 
mane polity,  the  new  idea  of  human  society  flashed 
upon  the  imagination  of  mankind  by  the  establish- 
ment of  the  Macedonian  Empire.  Such,  at  least,  it 
appeared  to  the  mind  of  a  writer  five  centuries  later ; 


l62         THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

but  there  are  traces  preserved,  even  in  the  wrecks  of 
ancient  civilization,  of  the  moral  effect  which  it 
actually  produced  on  the  feelings  of  society,  much 
more  nearly  contemporaneous.  The  conqueror,  in- 
deed, perished  early,  but  not  prematurely.  The  great 
empire  was  split  into  fragments,  but  each  long  pre- 
served a  sense  of  the  unity  from  which  it  was  broken 
off.  All  were  leavened  more  or  less  with  a  common 
idea  of  civilization,  and  recognized  man  as  one  being 
in  various  stages  of  development,  to  be  trained  under 
one  guidance  and  elevated  to  one  spiritual  level.  In 
the  two  great  kingdoms  of  Egypt  and  Syria,  which 
sprang  out  of  the  Macedonian, — in  the  two  great 
cities  of  Alexandria  and  Antioch,  to  which  the  true 
religion  owes  so  deep  a  debt, — the  unity  of  the  human 
race  was  practically  asserted  and  maintained."  "  After 
three  centuries  of  national  amalgamation,  the  result 
of  a  widespread  political  revolution,  after  the  diffusion 
of  Grecian  ideas  among  every  people,  from  the  Ionian 
to  the  Caspian  or  the  Red  Sea,  and  the  reception  in 
return,  of  manifold  ideas,  and  in  religious  matters  of 
much  higher  ideas,  from  the  Persian,  the  Indian,  the 
Egyptian  and  the  Jew,  the  people  even  of  Athens, 
the  very  centre  and  eye  of  Greece,  were  prepared  to 
admit  the  cardinal  doctrine  of  Paul's  preaching." 

The  same  writer  cordially  admits  the  moral  grand- 
eur and  the  moral  power  of  the  philosophers  whose 
teaching  had,  for  several  generations,  been  leavening 


THE    CRADLE    OF    THE    CHRIST.  163 

the  thought  and  ennobling  the  humanity  of  the 
Roman  world.  ''  The  philosophy  of  the  Stoics,  the 
highest  and  holiest  moral  theory  at  the  time  of  our 
Lord's  coming, — the  theory  which  most  worthily  con- 
tended against  the  merely  political  religion  of  the  day, 
the  theory  which  opposed  the  purest  ideas  and  the 
loftiest  aims  to  the  grovelling  principles  of  a  narrow 
and  selfish  expediency  on  which  the  frame  of  the 
heathen  ritual  rested — was  the  direct  creation  of  the 
sense  of  unity  and  equality  disseminated  among  the 
choicer  spirits  of  heathen  society  by  the  results  of 
the  Macedonian  conquest.  But  for  that  conquest  it 
could  hardly  have  existed  at  all.  It  was  the  phi- 
losophy of  Plato,  sublimed  and  harmonized  by  the 
political  circumstances  of  the  times.  It  was  what 
Plato  would  have  imagined,  had  he  been  a  subject  of 
Alexander." 

"  It  taught,  nominally  at  least,  the  equality  of  all 
God's  children — of  Greek  and  barbarian,  of  bond  and 
free.  It  renounced  the  exclusive  ideas  of  the  com- 
monwealth on  which  Plato  had  made  shipwreck  of  his 
consistency.  It  declared  that  to  the  wise  man  all  the 
world  is  his  country.  It  was  thoroughly  comprehen- 
sive and  cosmopolitan.  Instead  of  a  political  union 
it  preached  the  moral  union  of  all  good  men, — a  city 
of  true  philosophers,  a  community  of  religious  senti- 
ment, a  communion  of  saints,  to  be  developed  partly 
here   below,  but  more  consummately  in   the   future 


164         THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

state  of  a  glorified  hereafter.  It  aspired,  at  least,  to 
the  doctrine  of  an  immortal  city  of  the  soul,  a  provi- 
dence under  which  that  immortality  was  to  be  gained, 
a  reward  for  the  good,  possibly,  but  even  more 
dubiously,  a  punishment  of  the  wicked." 

Merivale,  it  will  be  understood,  writing  in  the  in- 
terest of  Christianity,  makes  note  of  the  limitations  of 
the  Stoic  Philosophy,  calls  it  vague,  unsatisfactory  and 
aristocratic,  the  "peculiarity  of  a  select  class  of 
minds  ; "  and  so  it  was,  to  a  degree;  but  that  it  had  a 
mighty  influence  throughout  the  intellectual  world,  as 
much  as  any  system  of  belief  could  have,  must  be 
confessed.  So  far  as  ideas  went,  it  comprehended 
the  wisest  and  best  there  were.  As  respected  the 
authority  by  which  the  ideas  were  recommended  and 
guaranteed,  it  was  the  authority  of  the  intellectual 
lights  of  the  world.  To  say  that  the  truths  were  lim- 
ited, is  to  say  what  may  be  said  of  every  intellectual 
system  under  the  sun,  including  the  beliefs  of  chris- 
tian apostles  which  the  christian  Church  has  out- 
grown. To  say  that  they  were  not  final,  is  to  say 
what  will  be  affirmed  of  every  intellectual  system  till 
the  end  of  time.  There  the  beliefs  were,  stated, 
urged,  preached  with  earnestness  by  men  of  live 
minds,  fully  awake  to  the  needs  of  the  society  they 
adorned,  thinking  and  writing,  not  for  their  own  en- 
tertainment, but  for  the  improvement  of  mankind. 
Their   books   were   not   read   by  the   multitude,  the 


THE    CRADLE    OF    THE    CHRIST.  165 

multitude  could  not  read  :  scarcely  can  they  read  now. 
But  the  men  influenced  the  directors  of  opinion,  the 
makers  of  laws,  the  builders  of  institutions,  the 
wealthy,  the  instructed,  the  high  in  place. 

Nor  must  it  be  forgotten  that  these  ideas  of  phi- 
losophy did  not  remain  cold  speculations.     They  bore 
characteristic  fruits  in  humanity  of  every  kind.     The 
brotherhood  was  not  a  sentiment,  it  was  a  principle  of 
wide  beneficence.      The  charities  of  this   gospel   at- 
tested the  presence  of  a  warm  heart  in  the  metropolis 
of  the  heathen  world.     Of  this    there  can   no  longer 
be  any  doubt.     Works  like  that  of   Denis'  "  Histoire 
des  Theories  et  des  Idees  Morales  dans  I'Antiquite," 
reveal  a  condition  of  becoming  in  the  Roman  Empire 
that  might  dispel  the  fears  of  the  most  skeptical  in 
regard  to  the  continuous  moral  progress  of  the  race. 
The  immense   popular   distributions   of   corn   which 
from  being  occasional  had  become  habitual  in  Rome, 
were  as  a  rule  prompted  by  no  humane  feeling,  were 
not  designed  to  mitigate  suffering  or  express  compas- 
sion.    They  were   in  the  main,  devices    for  gaining 
popularity.     Caius  Gracchus,  who,  more  than  a  cen- 
tury before  Christ,  carried   a  law  making  compulsory 
the  sale  of  corn  to  the  poor  at  a  nominal  price,  was 
perhaps  actuated  by   a   worthier   motive ;    but  it  is 
doubtful  whether  his  successors  were.     Cato  of  Utica 
was  not.     Clodius    Pulcher  was  not.     The  emperors 
were  obliged  to  purchase  popularity  by   these  enor- 


l66         THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

mous  bribes.  It  is  said  that  Augustus  caused  the 
monthly  distribution  to  be  made  to  two  hundred 
thousand  people.  Half  a  million  claimed  the  bounty 
under  the  Antonines.  The  addition  of  a  ration  of 
oil  to  the  corn;  the  substitution  of  bread  for  the  corn; 
the  supplementing  of  this  by  an  allowance  of  pork  ;  a 
subsequent  supply  of  the  article  of  salt  to  the  poor  on 
similarly  easy  terms  ;  the  distribution  of  portions  of 
land  ;  the  imperial  legacies,  donations,  gratuities, 
mentioned  as  bestowed  on  occasion  ;  the  public  baths 
provided  and  thrown  open  to  all  at  a  trifling  expense, 
were  also  means  of  winning  or  retaining  the  good  will 
of  a  fickle  and  turbulent  populace.  They  neither 
expressed  a  humane  sentiment  nor  produced  a  humane 
result.  They  were  suggested  by  ambition,  no 
better  sometimes  than  that  of  the  demagogue,  and 
they  begot  idleness,  and  demoralization.  But  some 
part  of  the  beneficence  must  have  sprung  from  a  more 
generous  motive.  The  interest  manifested  by  several 
emperors  in  public  education,  and  the  appropriation 
made  for  the  maintenance  of  the  children  of  the  poor, 
five  thousand  of  whom  are  said,  by  Pliny,  to  have  been 
supported  by  the  government,  under  Trajan,  who 
presume  never  heard  of  Christianity, — cannot  fairly 
be  ascribed  to  political  motives.  The  private 
charities  of  the  younger  Pliny,  who  devoted  a  small 
patrimony  to  the  maintenance  of  poor  children  in 
Como,  his  native  place  ;  of  Coelia  Macrina,  who  founded 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST.         16/ 

a  charity  for  one  hundred  at  Terracina ;  Hadrian's, 
bounties  to  poor  women  ;  Antonine's  loans  of  money 
to  the  poor  at  reduced  rates  of  interest ;  the  institu- 
tions dedicated  to  the  support  of  girls  by  Antoninus 
and  Marcus  Aurelius  ;  the  private  infirmaries  for 
slaves;  the  military  hospitals,  certainly  owed  their 
existence  to  a  humane  feeling.  Pliny  is  responsible 
for  the  statement  that  both  in  Greece  and  Rome  the 
poor  had  mutual  insurance  societies  which  provided 
for  their  sick  and  infirm  members.  Tacitus  expa- 
tiates on  the  generosity  of  the  rich,  who,  on  occa- 
sion of  a  catastrophe  near  Rome,  threw  open  their 
houses  and  taxed  their  resources  to  relieve  the  suf- 
fering.* 

Such  acts  attest  a  genuine  kindness.  The  pro- 
tests of  the  best  citizens  against  the  bloody  gladiatorial 
shows, — a  protest  so  eager  and  persistent  that  the 
trade  of  the  gladiator  was  seriously  injured — must 
have  been  in  the  highest  degree  unpopular,  for  the 
populace  found  in  these  shows  their  favorite  amuse- 
ment. The  remonstrances  of  philanthropic  men 
against  the  barbarities  of  the  penal  code;  the  call  for 
the  abolishment  of  the  death  penalty  ;  the  pity  for  the 
woes  of  neglected  children ;  the  indignation  at  the 
crime  of  infanticide  ;  the  earnest  interest  taken  in  the 

*  For  references,  see    Lecky's    "European    Morals,"  II.,  p. 
79-81. 


1 68  THE    CRADLE    OF    THE    CHRIST. 

problems  of  prostitution  and  the  most  revolting 
aspects  of  pauperism  were  such  as  might  have  pro- 
ceeded from  nineteenth  century,  people.*  Stronger 
words  were  never  spoken  by  American  abolitionists 
than  were  uttered  by  pagan  lips  against  the  slavery 
that  was  pulling  down  the  Roman  State. 

That  beneficence  in  the  Roman  Empire  during 
the  latter  half  of  the  first  century  and  the  first  half  of 
the  second  was  fitful,  formal,  limited,  and  unim- 
passioned,  as  compared  with  the  charities  of  Chris- 
tians in  their  communities,  need  not  be  said  ;  of  course 
it  was.  The  Christians  succeeded  to  the  legacies 
of  kindness  left  by  the  pagans  ;  they  were  compar- 
atively few  in  number,  and  were  bound  to  one  another 
by  peculiar  ties  ;  they  were  themselves  of  the  great 
family  of  the  poor  ;  they  were  obliged  to  help  one 
another  in  the  only  way  they  could,  by  personal  effort 
and  sacrifice.  Their  traditions,  too,  of  beneficence 
were  oriental.  The  difference  in  spirit  between 
Roman  and  Christian  charity  cannot  be  fairly  des- 
cribed as  a  difference  between  heathen  charity  and 
christian;  it  is  more  just  to  call  it  a  difference 
between  Eastern  charity  and  Western.  The  Orient- 
als, including  the  Jews,  made  beneficence  in  its 
various  forms,  an  individual  duty.  Kindness  to  the 
sick,  the  unfortunate,  the  poor,  compassion  with  the 
sorrowful,  almsgiving  to  the  destitute,  hospitality  to 
*See  Denis,  II.,  p.  55-218. 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST.         169 

the  Stranger,  are  virtues  characteristic  of  all  eastern 
people.  The  New  Testament  chiefly  echoes  the 
sentiment  of  the  Old  on  this  matter,  and  the  Old 
Testament  chimes  in  with  the  voices  of  eastern 
teachers.  In  the  West,  government  undertook 
responsibihties  which  in  oriental  lands,  were  assumed 
by  individuals  ;  people  were  to  a  much  greater  degree 
massed  in  orders  and  classes  ;  the  distance  was  wider 
between  the  governors  and  the  governed,  and  con- 
siderations of  state  more  gravely  affected  the  actions 
which  elsewhere  seemed  to  concern  only  the  private 
conscience  and  heart.  The  question  of  advantage 
between  these  two  systems  is  still  an  open  one.  In 
every  generation  there  have  been  some,  christians  too, 
who  preferred  the  western  method  to  the  eastern, 
as  being  less  costly,  and  more  methodical ;  the  debate 
on  the  relative  advantages  and  disadvantages  of  the 
personal  and  the  impersonal  methods  still  goes  on  in 
modern  communities  ;  neither  system  prevails  ex- 
clusively in  any  christian  land  ;  the  Latin  races  still, 
as  a  rule,  prefer  the  Roman  way,  France  for  example, 
where  charity  is  a  matter  of  public  rather  than  of 
private  concern. 

The  mischiefs  of  the  oriental  method  were  appar- 
ent before  Christianity  appeared,  and  its  zealous 
adoption  of  them  early  awakened  misgivings.  The 
indiscriminate  almsgiving,  the  elevation  of  poverty  to 
the   rank   of   a   privilege,    the    glorification   of   self- 


I/O         THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

impoverishment,  the  acceptance  of  feeling  as  a  divine 
monitor,  and  of  emotion  as  a  heavenly  instinct,  the 
substitution  of  the  worship  of  the  heart  for  defer- 
ence to  reason,  the  loose  compassion,  the  practical 
and  professed  communism — for  some  of  the  fathers 
maintained  that  all  property  was  based  on  usurpation, 
that  all  men  had  a  common  right  in  the  earth,  and 
that  none  was  entitled  to  hold  wealth  except  as  a 
trust  for  others — soon  disclosed  disastrous  results. 
Against  the  evils  that  are  fairly  chargeable  upon 
the  wholesale  measures  of  the  imperial  bounty,  must 
be  offset  the  equally  grave,  and  in  some  respects,  not 
dissimilar  evils  incident  to  the  unprincipled  practice 
of  loving  kindness  on  the  part  of  the  bishops  and 
their  flocks,  the  increase  of  the  dependent,  the  en- 
couragement of  pauperism,  the  waste  of  wealth,  the 
worse  waste  of  humanity.  National  philanthrophy  in 
London  and  New  York  finds  no  more  serious  obstacle 
to  its  advance  than  the  benevolence  that  is  incul- 
cated in  the  name  of  Christ,  and  by  authority  of  the 
New  Testament.  It  is  the  battle  of  science  against 
sentiment. 

The  increased  devoutness  that  showed  itself  in  the 
empire,  about  the  beghming  of  the  second  century, 
the  pious  passion  that  broke  out,  is  attributable  to 
natural  causes,  that  have  been  mentioned  by  every 
author  who  has  written  on  the  subject.  It  is  familiar 
knowledge  that  the  decay  of  institutions,  the  disintegra- 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST.         I^I 

tion  of  social  bonds,  the  general  decline  of   positive 
religious  faith,   a  decline  partly  due,  possibly,  to  the 
tolerance  which  placed  all  faiths   side  by  side,    was 
followed,  or  we  might  say  accompanied  by  a  longing 
after  divine  things  that  was  wild  in  the  fervor  of  its 
impulse.     The    complacent   reign    of   skepticism  was 
succeeded   by   a   volcanic    outbreak    of    superstition. 
What  has  been  called  ''  a  storm  of  supernaturalism  " 
burst  forth,  with  the  usual  accompaniments  of  frenzy, 
and  took   possession   of   all    classes.      Only   general 
causes  of  this  can  be  assigned.     That  it  was  due  to 
any  special  influence  cannot  be  alleged.     That  it  was 
due  to  any  "  supernatural  "  interposition  of  heaven,  is 
an  unnecessary  supposition.     The  cursory  reader  of 
the  history  of  the  empire,  as   written  by  intelligent 
modern    scholars,    of   whatever   school,    sees    plainly 
enough  the  pass  tha.t  things  had  come  to  and   how 
they  came  to  it.     Christianity  came  in  on  the  wave  of 
this  movement,  felt  its  force,  struck  into  its  channel, 
was   borne   aloft   on  its  bosom.     It  is  customary  to 
speak  of  all  this  spiritual  ferment  as  a  preparation  for 
Christianity  ;  it  was  such  a  preparation  as  left  Chris- 
tianity little  of  a  peculiar  kind  to  do.      What   new 
element  it  introduced,  it  would  be  hard  to   say  now, 
however  easy  it   seemed  half   a  century  ago.      The 
desert  land  of  heathenism  has  been  explored,  and  the 
result  is  a  discovery  of  fertile  plains  instead  of  barren- 
ness.    The  distinction  between  the  ante-Christian  and 


1/2         THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

the  post-christiaii  eras  is,  if  not  obliterated,  yet  so  far 
effaced,  that  the  transition  from  one  to  the  other  is 
natural  and  facile. 

The  longing  for  spiritual  satisfaction  that  stirred 
in  the  heart  of  the  empire,  found  neither  its  source 
nor  its  gratification  exclusively  in  the  religion  that 
afterwards  became  the  professed  faith  of  Rome.  It 
slaked  its  thirst  at  older  fountains,  Such  longings 
will,  at  need,  open  fountains  of  living  water  for  their 
own  supply.  Passing  through  the  valley  of  Baca 
they  create  a  well,  the  streams  whereof  fill  the  pools. 
The  smitten  rock  pours  out  its  torrents.  The  hungry 
soul  creates  its  harvest  as  it  goes  along,  feeding  itself 
by  the  way  with  food  that  seems  to  fall  miraculously 
from  the  sky.  It  makes  a  religion  if  there  be  none  at 
hand.  A  new  heaven  peopled  with  angels ;  a  new 
earth  full  of  providences  come  into  being  at  its  call. 
But  in  this  emergency  the  religion  was  extant  in  the 
world,  already  venerable,  already  proved.  It  was  the 
religion  of  Israel,  with  all  that  was  necessary  to 
attract  attention  and  command  reverence  ;  a  holy 
God,  an  immediate  providence,  a  solemn  history,  a 
glorious  prophecy,  an  inspiring  hope,  traditions,  in- 
stitutions, a  temple,  a  priesthood,  sacrifices,  a  code  of 
laws,  ceremonial  and  moral,  poetry,  learning,  music, 
mystery,  stately  forms  of  men  and  women,  judges, 
kings,  heroes,  martyrs,  saints,  a  superb  literature, 
legends  of  virtue,  festivals  of  joy,  visions  of  resurrec- 


THE    CRADLE    OF    THE    CHRIST.  1/3 

tion  and  judgment,  precepts  of  righteousness,  promises 
of  peace,  songs  of  victory  and  of  sorrow,  dreams  of  a 
heavenly  kingdom  to  be  won  by  obedience  to  divine 
law,  tender  lessons  of  charity,  stern  lessons  of  denial, 
fascinating  attractions  and  yet  more  fascinating  fears, 
gentle  persuasions  and  awful  menaces,  calculated  to 
lay  hold  on  every  mood,  to  thrill  and  to  satisfy  every 
human  emotion.  The  religion  of  Israel  lacked  little 
but  outward  prestige  of  power  and  wealth  to  make 
it  precisely  what  the  time  required  ;  and  in  times  of 
real  earnestness  the  prestige  of  power  and  wealth  is 
readily  dispensed  with.  The  unfashionable  faith  is 
the  very  one  to  attract  worldly  people  on  their  first 
awakening  to  spiritual  sensibility.  The  show  of  world- 
liness  is  then,  to  the  worldly,  particularly  offensive. 
"The  lust  of  the  flesh,  the  lust  of  the  eyes,  the  pride 
of  life,"  delight  in  abasing  themselves  before  rags  and 
filth,  wishing  tq  reach  the  opposite  extreme.  The 
graces  of  the  religious  character,  humility,  meekness, 
self-accusation,  contrition,  find  in  associations  with 
the  coarse,  the  hard,  the  repulsive,  their  fittest  ex- 
pression. Hence  it  was  that  Judaism,  heretofore  the 
faith  of  the  despised,  became  the  faith  of  the  despisers. 
Its  very  dogmatism,  its  proud  exclusiveness  and 
intolerance,  were  in  its  favor.  Its  haughty  reserve 
assisted  it  ;  its  superb  disdain  of  other  faiths,  its 
boast  of  antiquity,  its  claim  to  a  monopoly  of  the 
future  of  the  race,  exerted  a  weird  spell  over  the  dazed 


1/4         THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

and  decrepit  minds  of  the  superstitious,  high  and  low. 
Its  lofty  belief  in  miracle  and  sign,  fairly  constrained 
the  skeptical  to  bow  the  head. 

The  interest  felt  in  Judaism,  and  its  influence  on 
society  in  its  high  places,  have  already  been  alluded 
to,  and  need  not  be  further  insisted  on.  The  testi- 
mony of  Juvenal — the  testimony  of  sarcasm  and  com- 
plaint— is  enough  to  establish  the  fact  that  a  curi 
osity  amounting  to  infatuation  had  taken  possession 
especially  of  the  women  of  Rome. 

If  it  be  asked  why  Judaism,  then,  was  not  made 
the  religion  of  the  empire,  instead  of  Christianity, 
which  it  hated  with  all  the  fervor  of  close  relation- 
ship, the  answer  is  at  hand  :  Judaism  laid  no  em- 
phasis on  its  cosmopolitan  features,  and  discotwaged 
belief  in  the  historical  fulfilment  of  its  ow7i  pivphecy. 
The  charge  that  it  was  a  national  religion,  the  religion 
of  a  race,  it  was  at  no  pains  to  repel ;  on  the  con- 
trary, it  seems  to  have  exaggerated  this  claim  to  dis- 
tinction, standing  on  its  dignity,  despising  the  arts  of 
propagandism  and  demanding  the  submission  of  other 
creeds.  This  attitude  alone  might  have  recommended 
the  religion  in  some  quarters,  and  would  not  have  se- 
riously embarrassed  it  in  an}^,  supposing  it  to  have  been 
loftily  and  worthily  sustained.  A  graver  cause  of  its 
unpopularity  was  its  failure  to  lay  stress  on  its  Mes- 
sianic idea.  It  would  abate  nothins:  of  its  mono- 
theistic  grandeur.     Its  God  was  the  everlasting,  the 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST.         1 75 

infinite,  the  formless,  the  invisible.  The  command 
to  make  of  Him  no  image  whatever,  either  animal  or 
human,  to  associate  Him  with  neither  place  nor  time, 
was  obeyed  to  the  letter.  Among  a  people  extremely 
sensitive  to  grace  of  form  and  beauty  of  color,  the 
Jews  had  no  art  ;  they  set  up  no  statue ;  they  painted 
no  picture  ;  they  allowed  no  emblem  that  could  be 
worshipped.  Their  Holy  Spirit  was  an  influence  ;  their 
Messiah  was  a  distant  hope  ;  their  kingdom  of  heaven 
was  a  dream.  The  Christians  of  both  schools — the 
conservative  and  the  liberal — thrust  into  the  fore- 
ground the  conceptions  which  their  co-religionists 
kept  in  the  shadow  of  anticipation.  In  their  belief, 
prophecy  was  fulfilled.  The  Messiah  had  come  ;  he 
had  taken  on  human  shape  ;  he  had  passed  through 
an  earthly  career;  he  had  ascended  in  visible  form 
to  the  skies ;  he  sat  there  at  the  right  hand  of  the 
Majesty  on  high ;  he  was  active  in  his  care  for  his 
own,  suffering  and  sorrowing  on  earth  ;  he  sent  the 
Holy  Spirit,  the  comforter  and  guide  to  his  friends 
in  their  affliction  ;  he  was  the  immediate  God  ;  he 
heard  and  answered  prayer ;  he  pardoned  sin  ;  he 
opened  the  gates  of  heaven  to  believers.  They  did 
not  scruple  to  make  images  of  him  ;  to  represent 
him  in  emblems  ;  to  eke  out  their  own  rude  art  by 
adopting  the  art  which  the  heathen  had  ceased  to 
venerate,  and,  where  they  could,  re-dedicating  statues 
of  Apollo  and  Jupiter  to  their  Christ.     They  were 


176         THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

eager  to  have  legendary  portraits  accepted  as  faithful 
likenesses  of  their  Lord.  Fables  were  invented,  like 
that  of  Veronica's  napkin,  to  give  currency  to  certain 
heads  as  the  Christ's  own  image  of  himself  miracu- 
lously imprinted  on  a  cloth.  They  claimed  to  have 
seen  him,  in  moments  of  ecstasy;  they  ascribed  to  his 
prompting,  states  of  feeling,  purposes  and  courses  of 
action.  By  every  means  they  created  and  deepened 
the  impression  that  the  Divinity  they  worshipped  was 
a  real  God,  and  no  intellectual  abstraction. 

This  was  the  very  thing  the  pagan  world  wanted — 
2. personal  Deity,  Providence,  Saviour.  Through  their 
acquiescence  in  this  demand,  other  oriental  faiths, 
without  a  tithe  of  Israel's  grandeur — mythological, 
superstitious,  sensual  even — gained  a  popularity  that 
Judaism  could  not  attain.  The  strange  Egyptian 
divinities  drew  many  to  their  shrines.  Three  em- 
perors—  Commodus,  Caracalla  and  Heliogabalus — 
are  said  to  have  been  devoted  to  the  mysteries  of 
Isis  and  Serapis.  Juvenal  describes  Roman  women  as 
breaking  the  ice  on  the  frozen  Tiber,  at  the  dawn  of 
day,  and  plunging  thrice  into  the  stream  of  purification ; 
as  painfully  dragging  themselves  on  bleeding  knees 
around  the  field  of  Tarquin  ;  as  pi'ojecting  pilgrimages 
to  Egypt,  expeditions  in  search  of  the  holy  water  re- 
quired at  the  shrine  of  the  goddess.  The  Persian 
Mithras  had  his  throngs  of  adoring  devotees.  The 
prominence   given   at   this   period   to   the   statues   of 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST.         1 77 

Mithras,  the  existence  of  temples  to  Isis  and  Serapis, 
attest  the  power  that  these  divinities  exerted  over  the 
imagination  of  the  Italian  people.  These  people  de- 
manded deities  human  in  shape  and  attributes.  So 
clamorous  were  they  for  images,  that  they  would  con- 
secrate them  at  any  cost  of  decency.  The  emperor 
Augustus  was  deified.  His  statue  on  the  public 
square,  his  insignia  on  a  banner,  his  name  on  a 
shield  excited  veneration.  The  noblest  religion  with- 
out a  human  centre  was  less  prized  than  the  ignoblest 
with  one,  and  the  faith  of  Israel  was  compelled  to 
yield  to  the  degrading  fascinations  of  the  Bona  Dea. 

The  Christian  Jews,  with  their  Messiah,  took  the 
popular  desire  at  its  best,  and  satisfied  it.  The  image 
they  presented,  though  to  the  mind's  eye  only,  was 
so  much  more  gracious  than  the  loveliest  that  eastern 
or  western  art  furnished  that  its  acceptance  was 
assured.  Early  in  the  fourth  century  the  impression 
made  was  too  deep  to  be  overlooked  by  the  controllers 
of  public  opinion.  The  politic  Constantine,  seeking 
a  spiritual  ally,  and  finding  none  among  the  faiths 
of  his  own  land,  called  in  the  Nazarene  to  aid  him  in 
establishing  an  empire  over  the  souls  of  his  subjects. 
Christ  was  king  in  fact  before  he  was  formally  crowned. 

But  the  true  history  of  his  reign  began  with  the 
ceremony  of  his  coronation  ;  the  history  of  Chris- 
tianity as  a  distinct  religion  commences  with  the 
so-called  "  conversion  "  of  Constantine.     Latin  Chris- 


178         THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

tianity  was  the  first,  some  think  the  consummate,  in 
fact  the  only,  Christianity.  The  adoption  of  the  re- 
H2:ion  as  the  State  Church,  was  for  it  a  new  creation. 
From  that  moment,  began  the  efforts  to  complete  its 
dogmatical  system  by  a  succession  of  councils,  the 
first  one,  that  of  Nicsea,  being  held  A.  D.  325, 
about  twelve  years  after  the  imperial  "  conversion ;" 
that  of  Sardica — ecclesiastically  of  great  importance 
— in  347,  and  the  councils  of  Aries  and  of  Milan  in 

352. 

Once  seated  on  a  throne  of  power,  a  crown  on  his 
head,  a  sceptre  in  his  hand,  clothed  with  authority, 
protected  by  armies,  girded  with  law,  instigator  of 
policies,  chief  of  ceremonies,  the  Christ  in  heaven 
rapidly  completed  the  structure  whereof  Constantine 
had  placed  the  corner-stone.  The  materials  he  gath- 
ered right  and  left,  wherever  they  were  to  be  found. 
Right  of  supremacy  made  them  his.  Judaism  gave 
temple,  and  synagogue,  the  organization  of  its  priest- 
hood, the  distinction  between  priest  and  layman,  its 
worship,  music,  scripture,  litany,  sentiment  and  usage 
of  prayer,  its  ascetic  spirit,  its  doctrines  of  resurrec- 
tion and  judgment,  its  code  of  righteousness,  its  altar 
forms,  its  history,  and  its  prophecy.  Paganism  was  laid 
under  contribution  for  its  military  spirit.  The  "  sta- 
tions "  of  the  Passion,  were  copied  from  army  usage, 
so  were  its  practical  temper,  its  regard  for  precedent 
law  and  policy,  its  rules   of  obedience,  its   distrust  of 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST.         1 79 

speculation,  its  horror  of  schism,  its  passion  for  unity, 
its  skill  in  diplomacy,  its  solid  respect  for  authority. 
Quietly,  without  leave  asked,  or  apology  offered,  the 
insignia  of  the  old  faiths  were  transferred  to  the  new. 
The  title  of  Sovereign  Pontifex,  or  bridgemaker— given 
originally  to  the  chief  of  the  guild  of  mechanics,  pass- 
ed along  from  the  period  of  the  earliest  kings  through 
persons  of  consular  dignity,  and  finally  bestowed  on 
the  Roman  emperors  ;  a  title  given  at  first,  in  com- 
memoration of  "Cvl^ pons  yaniciUaris^  which  joined  the 
city  to  the  highest  of  the  surrounding  hills — was  con- 
ferred on  the  bishops  or  popes  whose  office  it  was  to 
bridge  over  the  gulf  between  the  earth  and  the  celes- 
tial mountains.  The  statues  of  Jupiter,  Apollo,  Mer- 
cury, Orpheus,  did  duty  for  the  Christ.  The  Thames 
river  god  officiates  at  the  baptism  of  Jesus  in  the 
Jordan.  Peter  holds  the  keys  of  Janus.  Moses  wears 
the  horns  of  Jove.  Ceres,  Cybele,  Demeter,  assume 
new  names  as  "  Queen  of  Heaven,"  "  Star  of  the  Sea," 
'-'  Maria  Illuminatrix  ; "  Dionysius  is  St.  Denis  ;  Cosmos 
is  St.  Cosmo  ;  Pluto  and  Proserpine  resign  their  seats 
in  the  hall  of  final  judgment,  to  the  Christ  and  his 
mother.  The  Parcae  depute  one  of  their  number, 
Lachesis,  the  disposer  of  lots,  to  set  the  stamp  of 
destiny  upon  the  deaths  of  Christian  believers.  The 
aiLva  placida  of  the  poets,  the  gentle  breeze,  is  person- 
ified as  Aura  and  Placida.  T\\Qpcrpct?iafclicitas  of  the 
devotee  becomes  a  lovely  presence  in  the  forms  of  St. 


l80         THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

Perpetua  and  St.  Felicitas,  guardian  angels  of  the  pious 
soul.  No  relic  of  Paganism  was  permitted  to  remain 
in  its  casket.  The  depositories  were  all  ransacked. 
The  shadowy  hands  of  Egyptian  priests  placed  the 
urn  of  holy  water  at  the  porch  of  the  basilica,  which 
stood  ready  to  be  converted  into  a  temple.  Priests  of 
the  most  ancient  faiths  of  Palestine,  Assyria,  Babylon, 
Thebes,  Persia,  were  permitted  to  erect  the  altar  at 
the  point  where  the  transverse  beam  of  the  cross 
meets  the  main  stem.  The  hands  that  constructed 
the  temple  in  cruciform  shape  had  long  become  too 
attenuated  to  cast  the  faintest  shadow.  There  Devaki 
with  the  infant  Crishna,  Maya  with  the  babe  Boodha, 
Juno  with  the  child  Mars,  represent  Mary  with  Jesus 
in  her  arms.  Coarse  emblems  are  not  rejected  ;  the 
Assyrian  dove  is  a  tender  symbol  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 
The  rag  bags  and  toy  boxes  were  explored.  A  bauble 
which  the  Roman  school-boy  had  thrown  away  was 
picked  up  and  called  an  "  agnus  dei."  The  musty 
wardrobes  of  forgotten  hierarchies  furnished  costumes 
for  the  officers  of  the  new  prince.  Alb  and  chasuble 
recalled  the  fashions  of  Numa's  day.  The  cast  off 
purple  habits  and  shoes  of  pagan  emperors  beautified 
the  august  persons  of  christian  Popes.  The  cardinal 
must  be  contented  with  the  robes  once  worn  by 
senators.  Zoroaster  bound  about  the  monks  the 
girdle  he  invented  as  a  protection  against  evil  spirits, 
and  clothed  them  in  the  frocks  he  had  found  conveni- 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST.         l8l 

ent  for  his  ritual.  The  Pope  thrust  out  his  foot  to  be 
kissed,  as  Caligula,  Heliogabalus,  and  Julius  Caesar 
had  thrust  out  theirs.  Nothing  came  amiss  to  the 
the  faith  that  was  to  discharge  henceforth  the  offices 
of  spiritual  impression.  Stoles,  veils,  croziers,  were 
all  in  requisition  without  too  close  scrutiny  of  their 
antecedents.  A  complete  investigation  of  this  sub- 
ject will  probably  reveal  the  fact  that  Christianity 
owes  its  entire  wardrobe,  ecclesiastical,  symbolical, 
dogmatical,  to  the  religions  that  preceded  it.  The 
point  of  difficulty  to  decide  is  in  what  respect  Chris- 
tianity differs  from  the  elder  faiths.  This  is  the  next 
task  its  apologists  have  to  perform. 

But  this  question  does  not  concern  us  here.  Hav- 
ing indicated  the  source  whence  the  religion  proceed- 
ed, and  the  process  by  which  the  successive  stages  in 
its  development  were  reached,  we  have  done  all  that 
was  purposed.  We  have  tried  to  make  it  clear  that 
the  Messianic  conception  from  which  it  started,  and 
from  which  its  life  was  derived  at  each  period  of  its 
growth,  presided  over  its  destiny  in  the  western 
world,  and  introduced  it  to  the  place  of  honor  it  was 
afterwards  called  to  fill. 

What  that  place  was  and  how  the  Church  filled 
it  has  been  told  in  a  multitude  of  historical  books. 
The  history  of  Christianity  is  not  the  story  of  a 
developing  idea,  but  a  reco^'d  of  the  achievements  of 
an  idea  developed,  organized,  instituted.     From  the 


152         THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

date  of  the  established  religion,  the  writings  of  the 
New  Testament  became  the  literature  of  the  earliest 
period.  In  the  western  world  the  mind  of  Chris- 
tendom expanded  to  deeper  and  wider  thoughts,  a  new 
literature  was  originated  of  great  richness,  affluence 
and  beauty,  and  gave  expression  to  ideas  which,  in 
the  primitive  period  could  not  have  been  formed. 
The  Greek  and  Latin  Fathers,  the  schoolmen,  the 
catholic  theologians,  Italian,  Spanish,  French,  the 
German  mystical  writers,  the  Protestant  divines 
and  preachers,  have  produced  writings  unsurpassed  in 
intellectual  strength  and  spiritual  discernment.  The 
possibilities  of  speculation  have  been  exhausted  ;  the 
abysses  of  reflection  have  been  sounded ;  the  heights 
of  meditation  have  been  scaled.  The  christian  idea 
of  salvation  has  been  applied  to  every  phase  of  hu- 
man experience,  and  to  every  problem  of  social  life. 
The  rudimental  conceptions  have  been  distanced ; 
the  original  limitations  have  been  overpassed.  Rites 
have  been  charged  with  new  significance,  sym- 
bols loaded  with  new  meanings,  doctrines  interpreted 
in  new  senses.  Christianity  as  the  modern  world 
knows  it,  is  a  new  creation.  The  name  of  Messiah 
is  spoken,  but  with  feelings  unknown  to  the  Jews  of 
the  first  and  second  century.  The  New  Testament 
is  regarded  as  a  store  house  of  germs,  a  magazine  of 
texts  to  be  interpreted  by  the  light  of  the  full  orbed 
spirit,   and   unfolded   to  meet  the  needs  of   an  older 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST.         1 83 

world.  The  cord  which  connected  the  reHgion  with 
the  mother  faith  of  Israel  was  broken  and  the  faith 
entered  on  an  independent  existence.  To  the  cradle 
succeeds  the  cathedral. 


IX. 


JESUS. 

It  will  be  remarked  that  in  the  foregoing  chapters 

no  account  is  given  of  Jesus,  and  no  account  made  of 

him.     His  name  has  not  been  written  except  where 

the  common  usage  of  speech  made  it  necessary.     The 

writer  has  carefully  avoided  occasion  for  expressing 

an  opinion  in  regard  to  his  character,  his  performance, 

or   his  claim  ;  has   carefully   avoided   so  doing  ;  the 

omission  has  been   intentional.     The  purpose  of  his 

essay  is  to  give  the  history  of  an  idea,  not  the  history 

of  a  person,  to  trace  the  development  of  a  thought, 

not  the    influence    of    a    life,  letting   it  be    inferred 

whether  the   life  were   necessary,  and   if   necessary, 

wherein  and  how  far  necessary  to  the  shaping  of  the 

thought.     But  this   task  will   not  be  judged  to  have 

been  fairly  discharged  unless   he   declares   the  nature 

of  the  inference    he    himself   draws.     The    question 

"  What  think  ye   of  the   Christ .?  "  meaning  ''  What 

think   ye  of  Jesus  ? "  may  be  fairly  put  to  him,  and 

should  be  frankly  answered.     That  there  are  two  dis- 
184 


THE    CRADLE    OF    THE    CHRIST.  185 

tiiict  questions  here  proposed,  need  not  at  the  close 
of  this  essay  be  said.  Jesus  is  the  name  of  a  man  ; 
Christ,  or  rather  The  Christ,  is  the  name  of  an  idea. 
The  history  of  Jesus  is  the  history  of  an  individual ;  the 
history  of  the  Christ  is  the  history  of  a  doctrine.  An 
essay  on  the  Christ-idea  touches  the  person  of  Jesus, 
only  as  he  is  associated  with  the  Christ-idea  or  is  made 
a  representative  of  it.  Had  he  not  been  associated 
with  that  idea,  either  through  his  own  design  or  in 
the  belief  of  his  countrymen,  the  omission  of  all  men- 
tion of  his  name  would  provoke  no  criticism.  The 
common  opinion  that  he  was  in  some  sense  the 
Christ ;  that  but  for  him  the  Christ-idea  would  not 
have  been  made  conspicuous  in  the  way  and  at  the 
time  it  was  ;  that  the  existence  of  the  Christian 
Church,  the  conversion  of  Paul,  the  composition  of 
the  New  Testament,  the  course  of  religious  thought 
in  the  eastern  and  western  world  was  directed  by  his 
mind  ;  that  the  social  life, — the  morals  and  manners, 
the  heart,  conscience,  feeling,  soul — of  mankind,  in 
the  earlier  and  later  centuries  of  his  era  was  deter- 
mined by  his  character,  renders  necessary  a  word  of 
comment  on  the  validity  of  his  individual  claim. 

If  either  of  the  four  gospels  is  to  be  accepted  as 
biography  it  must  be  the  first,  as  being  the  earliest  in 
date,  and  as  containing  less  than  either  of  the  others 
of  speculative  admixture.  The  first  gospel  rests,  ac- 
cording  to    an    ancient   tradition,  on  memoranda  or 


1 86         THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

notes  taken  by  a  companion  of  Jesus  and  afterwards 
written  out,  in  the  popular  language  of  the  country, 
for  the  use  of  the  disciples  and  others  in  Judca  and 
Galilee.  The  disappearance  of  all  save  a  few  frag- 
ments of  this  book,  and  of  any  writhig  answering  in 
description  to  it,  the  impossibility  of  identifying  it 
with  the  present  Gospel  of  Matthew,  or  of  proving 
that  the  existing  Gospel  of  Matthew  rests  upon  it  ;* 
the  comparatively  late  date  to  which  our  Greek 
Matthew  must  be  assigned — thirty  years  at  least,  prob- 
ably fifty  or  sixty  after  Jesus'  death,  and  the  absolute 
failure  of  all  attempts  to  trace  its  records  to  an  eye 
witness  of  any  sort,  (say  nothing  of  a  competent  eye 

*  The  character  and  influence  of  the  ^'Gospel  of  the  He- 
brews "  and  of  other  books  of  the  same  kind  is  considered  in 
full  b}^  Mr.  S.  Baring-Gould  in  "  The  Lost  and  Hostile  Gospels." 
Mr.  Baring-Gould  argues  that  while  neither  of  our  present  Gos- 
pels is  entitled  to  be  called  genuine  in  the  ordinary  sense,  they 
contain  authentic  biographical  materials.  It  is  his  opinion  that 
"at  the  close  of  the  first  century  almost  every  Church  had  its 
own  Gospel,  with  which  alone  it  was  acquainted.  But  it  does 
not  follow  that  these  Gospels  were  not  as  trustworthy  as 
the  four  which  we  now  alone  recognize."  p.  23.  Mr.  Baring- 
Gould's  argument  is  not  strong.  The  first  mention  of  the 
"  Gospel  of  the  Hebrews  "  is  no  earlier  than  the  middle  of  the 
second  century;  the  remaining  fragments  of  it  are  too  few  and 
too  undecisive  to  be  of  weight  ;  and  it  was,  by  all  confession, 
written  in  the  interest  of  the  Nazarene  or  Judaizing  Christians. 
Mr.  Baring-Gould  himself  classes  it  with  the  Clementine  writ- 
ings and  calls  them  "  The  Lost  Petrine  Gospels." 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST.         1 8/ 

witness,  clear  of  head,  tenacious  of  memory,  veracious 
in  speech,)  all  conspire  to  stamp  with  imprudence  the 
conjecture  that  the  Christ  of  Matthew  and  the  Jesus 
of  history  were  one  and  the  same.  This  would  be 
the  case  were  the  picture  harmoniously  proportioned, 
as  it  is  not. 

The  fourth  Gosj^el  is  usually  accepted  as  the 
work  of  a  disciple,  the  "  loved  disciple,"  the  bosom 
friend,  whose  apprehension  of  the  spiritual  character 
of  Jesus  was  much  keener  and  truer  than  that  of 
any  business  man,  any  mere  follower,  any  common- 
place, inconspicuous  person  like  Matthew.  But  the 
fourth  Gospel,  allowing  that  it  was  written  by  John 
the  disciple,  must,  to  insist  on  a  former  remark,  have 
been  written  in  his  extreme  old  age,  and  after  a  men- 
tal and  spiritual  transformation  so  complete  as  to 
leave  no  trace  of  the  Galilean  youth  whom  Jesus  took 
to  his  heart.  The  zealot  has  become  a  mystic;  the 
Palestinian  Jew  has  become  an  Asiatic  Greek :  the 
"son  of  thunder"'  is  a  philosopher;  the  fisherman 
is  a  cultivated  writer,  acquainted  with  the  subtlest 
forms  of  speculation.  Is  it  conceivable  that  such 
a  man  should  have  retained  his  impressions  of  bio- 
graphical incidents  and  personal  traits,  or  that  retain- 
ing them  he  should  have  allowed  them  their  due 
prominence  in  his  record.?  can  his  picture  be  ac- 
cepted as  a  portrait } 

Certainly,  some  are  impatient  to  say,  and  for  this 


1 88         THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

very  reason ;  as  the  perfect,  the  only  portrait ;  the 
picture  of  the  very  man,  the  biography  of  his  soul ;  we 
accept  it  as  we  accept  Plato's  portrait  of  Socrates. 
But  do  we  accept  Plato's  protrait  of  Socrates,  as  a 
piece  done  to  the  life }  Plato  was  a  great  artist,  as 
all  the  world  knows  from  his  authentic  works.  But 
even  in  his  case,  we  do  not  know  whether  he,  in 
depicting  Socrates,  meant  to  paint  the  man  as  he 
really  was,  or  an  ideal  head,  conceived  according  to 
the  Socratic  type.  To  compare  John's  portrait  of 
Jesus  with  Plato's  portrait  of  Socrates,  is  besides,  a 
proceeding  quite  illogical ;  for  we  must  assume,  in 
the  first  place,  that  John  painted  this  portrait  of 
Jesus,  and  in  the  next  place  that  the  portrait  must 
be  a  good  one  because  he  painted  it, — this  being  the 
only  piece  of  his  ever  on  exhibition. 

To  say  with  Renan  and  others  that  the  idealized 
likeness  must  from  the  nature  of  the  case  be  the 
correct  one,  because  such  a  person  as  Jesus  was,  is 
best  seen  at  a  distance  and  by  poetic  gaze,  is  again 
to  beg  the  question.  How  do  we  know  that  Jesus 
was  such  a  person  ?  How  do  we  know  that  the  most 
spiritual  apprehension  of  him,  was  the  truest ;  that 
they  judged  him  most  justly,  who  judged  him  from 
the  highest  point ;  that  the  glorifying  imaginations 
alone  presented  his  full  stature  and  proportions,  that 
the  ordinary  minds  immediately  about  him  necessarily 
misconstrued  and  misrepresented  him ,?     In  the  order 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST.         1 89 

of  experience,  historical  and  biographical  truth  is  dis- 
covered by  stripping  off  layer  after  layer  of  exaggera- 
tion and  going  back  to  the  statements  of  contempora- 
ries. As  a  rule,  figures  are  reduced,  not  enlarged, 
by  criticism.  The  influence  of  admiration  is  recog- 
nized as  distorting  and  falsifying,  while  exalting.  The 
process  of  legend-making  begins  immediately,  goes  on 
rapidly  and  with  accelerating  speed,  and  must  be 
liberally  allowed  for  by  the  seeker  after  truth.  In 
scores  of  instances  the  historical  individual  turns  out 
to  be  very  much  smaller  than  he  was  painted  by  his 
terrified  or  loving  worshippers.  In  no  single  case 
has  it  been  established  that  he  was  greater,  or  as 
great.  It  is  no  doubt,  conceivable  that  such  a  case 
should  occur,  but  it  never  has  occurred,  in  known 
instances,  and  cannot  be  presumed  to  have  occurred 
in  any  particular  instance.  The  presumptions  are 
against  the  correctness  of  the  glorified  image.  The 
disposition  to  exaggerate  is  so  much  stronger  than 
the  disposition  to  underrate,  that  even  really  great 
men  are  placed  higher  than  they  belong  oftener  than 
lower.  The  historical  method  works  backwards. 
Knowledge  shrinks  the  man.  Eminent  examples  that 
jump  to  recollection  instantly  confirm  this  view. 

The  case  of  Mahomet  is  in  point.  Here,  the  crit- 
ical procedure  was  twofold  ;  first  to  rescue  a  figure 
from  the  depths  of  infamy  and  then  to  recover  the 
same   figure   from    the   cloudland  of   fancy.     Under 


IQO         THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

the  pressure  of  christian  hate  the  fame  of  Mahomet 
sank  to  the  lowest  point.  He  was  impostor,  liar, 
cheat,  name  for  all  shamefulness.  From  this  muck 
heap  he  has  been  plucked  by  valiant  hands,  and 
placed  on  the  list  of  heroes.  Now  another  process 
is  beginning,  to  find  precisely  what  kind  of  hero  he 
was  ;  and  it  is  safe  to  say  that  under  this  process  the 
dimensions  of  the  hero  shrink.  The  arabian  estimate 
of  the  prophet  will  not  bear  close  examination.  The 
glamor  of  pious  enthusiasm  being  dispelled,  the 
traits  of  nationality  show  themselves  ;  the  ecstasy  is 
seen  to  be  complicated  with  epilepsy  ;  the  revelations 
partake  of  the  general  oriental  character  ;  the  truths 
are  the  cardinal  truths  of  the  Semitic  religions  ;  the 
personal  qualities  are  of  the  same  cast  that  dis- 
tinguishes the  arabian  mind.  The  detestation  and 
the  homage  are  both  unjustifiable. 

Another  example  in  point  is  Buddha  ;  a  name 
covered  by  ages  of  fable,  and  so  thickly  that  his 
historical  existence  was  long  doubted.  It  was 
questioned  whether  he  was  anything  more  substantial 
than  a  vision.  The  mist  of  legend  has  already  been 
so  far  dispersed  that  a  grand  form  is  discerned  moving 
up  and  down  in  India.  Presently  it  will  be  measured 
and  outlined.  It  is  safe  to  predict  intellectual  and 
moral  shrinkage  of  the  person  under  the  operation  of 
this  scrutiny.  Just  now  the  impression  of  his  great- 
ness is  somewhat  overpowering.      He  looks   morally 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST.         I9I 

gigantic  as  compared  with  teachers  who  are  better 
known.  We  quote  his  sayings  with  unbounded  admi- 
ration ;  we  commend  his  life  as  an  illustration  of  what- 
ever most  exalts  humanity.  But  if  the  time  ever 
comes  when  his  lineaments  are  fully  revealed  to  sight, 
he  will  be  found  neither  much  greater  nor  much  better 
than  his  generation  justified. 

The  critics  of  Strauss'  "  Life  of  Jesus  "  insisted  on 
the  necessity  of  a  historical  foundation  for  his 
character.  Such  a  person  they  declared  must  have 
lived ;  he  could  not  have  been  invented.  Strange 
position  to  take,  in  view  of  the  fact  that  idealization  is 
one  of  the  commonest  feats  of  mankind ;  that  the 
human  imagination  is  continually  constructing 
heroes  out  of  poltroons,  and  transmuting  lead  into 
gold  !  Some  idealization  there  is,  by  the  general  con- 
fession of  unprejudiced  men.  The  whole  cannot  be 
received  as  literal  fact.  There  is  here  and  there  a 
bit  of  color  put  on  to  heighten  the  effect.  Who  shall 
decide  how  much  ?  If  the  figure  is  glorified  a  little, 
why  not  a  great  deal  ?  If  a  great  deal,  why  not 
altogether.?  The  materials  for  constructing  the  per- 
son being  given,  as  they  are,  in  the  hebrew  genius, 
,and  the  plastic  power  being  provided  as  it  is,  by  the 
hebrew  enthusiasm,  the  result  might  have  been  pre- 
dicted, a  good  way  in  advance  of  history.  The 
argument  against  Strauss'  method  proves  too  much. 

The  critics  of  Baur  urged  with  ceaseless  iteration 


192         THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

the  absurdity  of  accounting  for  the  New  Testament, 
and  explaining  the  developments  of  the  first  century, 
by  means  of  bodiless  ideas,  substituting  phantoms  of 
thought  for  persons,  intellectual  issues  for  the  inter- 
actions of  living  men.  Life,  it  was  said,  presupposes 
life ;  life  alone  generates  life.  To  create  a  New 
Testament  out  of  rabbinical  fancies  is  preposterous. 
True  enough.  History  is  not  spectral ;  but  neither 
are  ideas  spectral.  Ideas  imply  living  minds,  and 
living  minds  are  persons.  But  the  persons  are  not 
of  necessity  single  individuals.  They  may  be  multi- 
tudes ;  they  may  be  generations ;  they  probably  are  a 
nation.  The  individuals  that  loom  up  conspicuously 
represent  multitudes,  an  epoch,  of  which  they  are 
mouth  pieces  and  agents.  Do  no  individuals  whatever 
loom  up  ?  None  the  less  creative  is  the  epoch  ;  none 
the  less  vital  are  the  ideas.  The  great  events  of  the 
world  depend  not  on  individuals,  but  on  the  cumula- 
tive force  and  providential  meeting  of  wide  social 
tendencies  that  have  been  gathering  head  for  ages 
and  pointing  in  certain  directions.  Mahomet,  a  sensi- 
tive, recejotive,  responsive  spirit,  gave  a  name  to  the 
arabian  movement  ;  he  neither  originated  it,  nor 
finally  shaped  it.  Luther,  brave,  self-poised,  inde- 
pendent soul,  was  not  the  author  of  the  Reformation, 
though  he  gave  character  to  it.  Others  had  gone  be- 
fore him,  and  broken  a  w^ay.  The  time  for  reforma- 
tion had  come,  thousands  were  watching  for  the  light 


THE    CRADLE    OF    THE    CHRIST.  I93 

which  Luther  descried,  and  eagerly  aided  in  its  diffu- 
sion. Innumerable  sparks  burst  into  flame.  He 
was  child,  not  father  of  the  movement ;  so  it  may  have 
been  with  Jesus,  with  Peter,  with  Paul.  They  pre- 
supposed the  ideas  of  their  age,  and  the  agency  of 
living  men.  The  literature  of  the  New  Testament, 
which  is  all  that  Baur  concerned  himself  with,  stands 
for  what  it  is,  a  literature  ;  a  product  of  intellectual 
activity  in  the  age  that  created  it.  The  popular 
notion  that  Scripture  was  penned  by  men  whose 
minds  were  full  of  thoughts  not  their  own,  but  God's, 
contains  a  rational  truth.  All  great  literature,  all 
literature  that  is  not  occasional,  incidental,  ephemeral, 
is  inspired  in  this  sense.  The  writers  held  the  pen 
while  the  spirit  of  their  age,  of  many  ages,  of  all  ages 
at  length,  rolled  through  them.  It  is  true  of  all  repre- 
sentative, of  all  national  books.  It  is  true  of  the 
"Iliad  "  of  Homer,  of  Dante's  Divina  Commedia,  of  the 
Book  of  Job,  the  Koran,  the  "  Three  Kings,"  the 
Ramayana,  the  Mahabharata,  the  Dhammapada,  the 
elder  Edda.  Such  books  as  express  the  mind  of  an 
epoch  are  productions  of  an  era,  not  of  a  man.  The 
productive  force  is  in  the  time.  The  man  is  of 
moment  but  incidentally.  In  discussing  such  works, 
all  consideration  of  the  man  may  be  dispensed  with. 
Strauss  and  Baur  were  Hegelians,  who  regarded  the 
world-movements  described  in  literatures  and;  events, 
as  moments  in  the  experience   of   God.     Nothing  to 


194  THE    CRADLE    OF    THE    CHRIST. 

them,  therefore,  was  spectral.  In  tracing  the  pedigree 
of  ideas,  they  felt  themselves  to  be  tracing  the  foot- 
prints of  Deity. 

The  difficulty  of  constructing  one  harmonious 
character  from  the  four  gospels  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment need  not  be  expatiated  on  here.  It  is  a  difficulty 
that  never  has  been  overcome,  and  that  increases  in 
dimensions  with  our  knowledge  of  the  book.  It  is,  of 
course  possible,  not  easy,  but  possible,  for  one  stand- 
ing at  either  extreme  to  drag  the  opposite  extreme 
into  apparent  accord.  The  believer  in  the  divinity  of 
the  Christ  planting  himself  on  the  doctrine  of  the 
Logos,  reads  his  theory  into  the  earlier  gospels,  loads 
the  language  with  meaning  it  was  never  meant  to  bear, 
stretches  the  homely  incidents  on  the  rack  of  his  hy- 
pothesis, and  painfully  excavates  the  figure  he  has 
already  laid  there.  The  believer  in  the  humanity  of 
the  Christ,  pursuing  the  opposite  method,  belittles  the 
Johannean  conception  till  it  comes  within  the  compass 
of  his  argument,  dilutes  the  statements,  expurgates 
and  attenuates  the  thought,  till  nothing  remains  but 
sentimentalism.  Each  vindicates  one  view  by  sacri- 
ficing the  other.  To  one  who  would  preserve  both 
representations,  the  task  of  combination  is  desperate. 
They  are  the  centres  of  two  opposite  systems.  One 
is  a  human  being,  a  man ;  the  other  is  a  demi-god. 
One  is  a  teacher  of  moral  and  religious  truth;  the 
other  is  an  incarnation  of  the  truth.    One  indicates  the 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST.         I95 

way;  the  other  is  the  way.  One  invites  to  life  ;  the 
other  is  the  hfe.  One  talks  about  God  and  immortali- 
ty ;  the  other  manifests  God,  and  is  immortality.  One 
points  to  heaven  ;  the  other  "  is  in  heaven."  One  is 
a  helpful  human  friend  ;  the  other  is  a  divine  Saviour. 
One  claims  allegiance  on  the  ground  of  his  providen- 
tial calling  ;  the  other  demands  spiritual  surrender  on 
the  ground  of  his  transcendent  nature.  One  collects 
a  body  of  disciples ;  the  other  forms  and  consecrates 
a  church,  and  puts  it  in  charge  of  a  Holy  Spirit,  that 
shall  save  it  from  error  and  evil.  After  what  has  been 
said  in  previous  chapters  it  is  unnecessary  to  enlarge. 
Let  whoever  will  take  Furness'  portrait  of  Jesus  on 
one  hand,  and  Pressense's  on  the  other  ;  let  him  place 
them  side  by  side  ;  let  him  subject  them  to  close 
scrutiny,  comparing  each  with  the  original  sketches  ; 
and  he  will  rise  from  the  contemplation  satisfied  that 
the  two  pictures  cannot  represent  the  same  person. 

Scarcely  less  is  the  difficulty  of  constructing  a 
harmonious  character  from  the  first  gospel  alone. 
Renan  brought  to  this  experiment  rare  powers  of 
mind,  and  a  singular  skill  in  letters.  An  orientalist, 
well  versed  in  the  productions  of  eastern  genius  ;  an 
accomplished  literary  investigator,  practised  in  dis- 
cerning between  the  genuine  and  the  spurious  ;  with- 
out dogmatic  prejudice  or  predilection,  neither 
christian  nor  anti-christian  ;  enthusiastic,  yet  criti- 
cal ;    approaching    the    subject   from    the    historical 


ig6  THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

direction ;  preparing  himself  laboriously  for  his  task, 
and  devoting  to  it  all  the  capacity  there  was  in  him, 
Renan  yet  signally  failed  to  construct  a  morally  har- 
monious figure.  Though  conceiving  Jesus  as  simply 
a  man,  he  was  obliged  to  resort  to  most  obnoxious 
extravagances  to  make  the  narratives  cohere.  The 
"  Vie  de  Jesus  "  is  a  standing  refutation  of  the  theory 
tha-t  the  elements  of  a  harmonious  biography  are  to 
be  found  in  the  first  gospel.  It  is  the  Christ  of  the 
first  gospel  who  curses  unbelieving  and  inhospitable 
cities  ;  who  threatens  to  deny  in  heaven  those  that 
deny  him  on  earth  ;  who  speaks  of  the  unpardonable 
sin,  that  "  shall  not  be  forgiven,  either  in  this 
world,  or  in  the  world  to  come  ; "  who  will  have  none 
called  "Master"  but  himself;  who  condemns  to 
"  everlasting  fire,  prepared  for  the  devil  and  his  an- 
gels "  those  who  have  not  assisted  "  these  my  breth- 
ren ; "  who  bids  his  friends  regard  as  no  better  than 
''  a  heathen  man  and  a  publican,"  the  offender  who 
will  not  listen  to  the  Church ;  who  launches  indis- 
criminate invective  against  scribes  and  pharisees ; 
who  anticipates  sitting  on  a  throne,  a  judge  of  all 
nations,  with  his  chosen  followers  sitting  on  twelve 
thrones  of  authority  in  the  same  kingdom.  These 
statements  must  be  qualified,  allegorized,  "spiritu- 
alized" a  good  deal,  before  they  can  be  made  congenial 
with  the  attributes  of  meekness,  humility,  gentleness, 
patience,  loving-kindness,  human  sympathy,  benevo- 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST.         1 97 

lence,  justice,  that  adorn  the  image  of  a  human 
Jesus.  One  set  of  qualities  or  the  other,  must  be  dis- 
avowed, unless  we  would  incur  the  reproach  that  has 
fallen  on  Renan,  of  transforming  Jesus  into  a  terri- 
bly magnificent,  and  superbly  unlovely  person.  Of 
this  there  is  no  necessity,  for  there  is  no  necessity 
for  constructing  a  harmonious  character,  on  any  hypo- 
thesis. We  are  not  called  on  to  construct  a  char- 
acter at  all.  We  may  frankly  own  that  the  materials 
for  constructing  a  character  are  not  furnished.  The 
first  gospels  exhibit  stages  in  the  development  of  the 
Christ  idea  ;  they  do  not  give  a  portraiture  of  the 
man  Jesus. 

The  hypothesis  of  mental  and  sentimental  devel- 
opment in  the  experience  of  Jesus  comes  to  the  aid  of 
the  believers.  Signs  of  such  an  interior  progress  do 
certainly  appear,  or  can  be  made  to  appear  by  force  of 
enthusiastic  exegesis.  The  teacher  who  admonishes 
his  disciples  not  to  cast  their  pearls  before  swine,  re- 
lates, with  approval,  the  parable  of  the  sower  who  flung 
his  seed  right  and  left,  heedless  that  some  fell  on  thorns 
that  grew  np  and  choked  them,  and  some  on  stony 
ground,  where  having  no  root,  they  withered  away. 
The  man  who  twice  frigidly  repulsed  the  Canaanite 
woman  who  begged  on  her  knees  the  boon  of  his  com- 
passion, telling  her  that  he  was  not  sent,  save  to  the  lost 
sheep  of  the  house  of  Israel,  adding,  "  it  is  not  meet 
to  take  the  children's  bread  and  cast  it  to  the  dogs,"  not 


198         THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

only  extends  his  effectual  sympathy  to  her  in  her  imme- 
diate need,  but  is  found  afterward,  seeking  and  saving 
these  very  lost,  going  into  the  wilderness  to  find  them 
that  had  gone  astray,  visiting  the  country  of  the 
pagan  Gergesenes,  and  opening  the  blind  eyes  of  Sa- 
maritans. The  twelve  disciples  called  and  sent  to  the 
twelve  tribes  of  Israel,  one  to  each  tribe,  none  to  spare 
for  the  people  beyond  the  borders  of  Palestine,  be- 
came later  seventy  apostles  commissioned  to  carry 
the  message  of  the  kingdom  to  all  the  tribes  of  the 
earth.  The  exerciser  of  evil  spirits  begins  by  casting 
devils  into  the  herd  of  swine,  thus  "  spoiling  the  pig- 
market  "  of  a  village,  herein  showing  himself  a  true 
Jew,  and  ends  by  sitting  at  meat  with  publicans  and 
sinners.  By  ingenious  piecing,  light  skipping  over 
dates  and  discrepancies  careless  of  sequence  and  con- 
sequence, with  resolute  purpose  to  extract  from  the 
documents,  by  all  or  any  means,  a  consistent  human 
character,  the  development  theory  may  be  pushed 
a  little  way.  But  it  soon  comes  against  an  insur- 
mountable difficulty  ;  the  stream  narrows  just  where 
it  ought  to  widen,  namely,  as  it  approaches  the 
ocean.  It  is  towards  the  end  of  his  career  that  the 
fanaticism  discloses  itself.  The  terrible  outbreaks  of 
anger,  the  invectives,  the  diatribes,  the  superb  claims 
of  authority,  the  horrid  descriptions  of  the  day  of 
judgment,  the  discouragement  and  desjDair,  come  at  the 
last.     The  serenity  disappears  ;    the  sunlight    pales ; 


THE    CRADLE    OF    THE    CHRIST.  I99 

the  day  closes  in  mist.     The  man   shrinks,  instead  of 
expanding,  as  he  grows. 

This  is  Kenan's  account  of  it  ;  an  account  more 
deeply  colored  with  gloom  than  need  be  ;  for  that  the 
baffled,  tortured  Jesus,  lost  his  moral  poise,  and  be- 
came a  deliberate  impostor,  is  not  fairly  deducible 
from  any  text ;  but  the  account  is  still  essentially  close 
and  natural.  Starting,  as  Renan  does,  from  the  po- 
sition that  the  four  gospels  contain  materials  for  an 
intelligible  portraiture  of  Jesus  ;  that  those  materials 
may  be  discovered,  sifted,  and  arranged  so  as  to  pro- 
duce a  well  proportioned  figure  ;  and  that  the  principle 
of  this  human  construction,  must,  on  the  supposition, 
be  the  principle  according  to  which  the  characters  of 
men  are  and  must  be  constructed,  namely,  by  tracing 
the  actions  and  reactions  between  them  and  the  cir- 
cumstances of  their  time  and  place  ;  starting,  we  say, 
from  this  position,  it  is  difficult  to  avoid  the  inferences 
that  he  draws  in  regard  to  the  disastrous  effect  that 
skepticism  and  opposition  had  on  the  mental  and 
moral  character  of  the  hero.  That  "  he  made  no  conces- 
sion to  necessity;"  that  "he  boldly  declared  war 
against  nature,  a  complete  rupture  with  kindred  ;  " 
that  "  he  exacted  fom  his  associates  an  utter  aban- 
donment of  terrestrial  satisfactions,  an  absolute  conse- 
cration to  his  work,"  is  no  more  thar  the  plain  texts 
imply.  Renan  does  not  strain  language  when  he 
says  :    "  In  his  excess  of  rigor,  he  went  so  far  as  to 


200         THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

suppress  natural  desire.  His  requirements  knew  no 
bounds.  Scorning  the  wholesome  limitations  of  hu- 
man nature,  he  would  have  people  live  for  him  only, 
love  him  alone."  "  Something  preternatural  and 
strange  mingled  with  his  discourse  ;  as  if  a  fire  was 
consuming  the  roots  of  his  life,  and  reducing  the 
whole  to  a  frightful  desert.  The  sentiment  of  disgust 
towards  the  world,  gloomy  and  bitter,  of  excessive  ab- 
negation which  characterizes  christian  perfection,  had 
for  its  author,  not  the  sensitive  joyous  moralist  of  the 
earlier  time,  but  the  sombre  titan,  whom  a  vast  and 
appalling  presentiment  carried  further  and  further 
away  from  humanity.  It  looks  as  though,  in  these 
moments  of  conflict  with  the  most  legitimate  desires 
of  the  heart,  he  forgot  the  pleasure  of  living  and  lov- 
ing, of  seeing  and  feeling."  "  It  is  easy  to  believe 
that  from  the  view  of  Jesus,  at  this  epoch  of  his  life, 
every  thought  save  for  the  kingdom  of  God,  had 
wholly  disappeared.  He  was,  so  to  speak,  entirely  out 
of  nature  ;  family,  friends,  country  had  no  meaning  to 
him."  '*  A  strange  passion  for  suffering  and  persecu- 
tion possessed  him.  His  blood  seemed  the  water  of  a 
second  baptism  he  must  be  bathed  in,  and  he  had  the 
air  of  one  driven  by  a  singular  impulse  to  anticipate 
this  baptism  which  alone  could  quench  his  thirst." 
"At  times  his  reason  seemed  disturbed.  He  expe- 
rienced inward  agitations  and  agonies.  The  tremen- 
dous vision  of  the  kingdom  of  God,  ceaselessly  flaming 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST.         201 

before  his  eyes,  made  him  giddy.  His  friends  thought 
him,  at  moments,  beside  himself.  His  enemies  de- 
clared him  possessed  by  a  devil.  His  passionate  tem- 
perament, carried  him,  in  an  instant,  over  the  borders 
of  human  nature.  *  *  *  Urgent,  imperious,  he 
brooked  no  opposition.  His  native  gentleness  left 
him  ;  he  was  at  times  rude  and  fantastical.  *  *  * 
At  times  his  ill  humor  against  all  opposition  pushed 
him  to  actions  unaccountable  and  preposterous.  It 
was  not  that  his  virtue  sank ;  his  struggle  against  re- 
ality in  the  name  of  the  ideal  became  insupportable. 
He  hurled  himself  in  angry  revolt  against  the  world. 
*  *  *  The  tone  he  had  assumed  could  not  be  sus- 
tained more  than  a  few  months.  It  was  time  for 
death  to  put  an  end  to  a  situation  strained  to  excess, 
to  snatch  him  from  the  embarrassments  of  a  path  that 
had  no  issue,  and,  delivered  from  a  trial  too  protracted, 
to  introduce  him,  stainless,  into  the  serenity  of  his 
heaven." 

This  is  strong  language,  even  shocking  to  minds 
accustomed  to  worship  a  character  of  ideal  perfection. 
But  it  is  scarcely  bolder  than  the  case  warrants.  The 
privilege  to  pick  and  choose  material  has  its  limits.  We 
have  no  right  to  take  what  pleases  us  and  leave  the 
rest.  Statements  that  rest  on  equal  evidence  deserve 
equal  acceptance.  If  the  result  be  not  agreeable,  the 
responsibility  is  not  with  the  critic. 

The  only  wonder  is  that  such  a  person  as  the  literal 


202  THE    CRADLE    OF    THE    CHRIST. 

record  justifies,  should  be  accepted  as  the  founder  of  a 
religion.  How  can  Renan  stand  before  his  portrait 
of  Jesus,  and  say,  "  the  man  here  delineated  merits  a 
place  at  the  summit  of  human  grandeur ;  "  "  this  is  the 
supreme  man ;  a  sublime  personage  ;  "  "  every  day 
he  presides  over  the  destiny  of  the  world  ;  to  call  him 
divine  is  no  exaggeration  ;  amid  the  columns  that,  in 
vulgar  uniformity  crowd  the  plain,  there  are  some 
that  point  to  the  skies  and  attest  a  nobler  destiny  for 
man  ;  Jesus  is  the  loftiest  of  these  ;  in  him  is  concen- 
tred all  that  is  highest  and  best  in  human  nature." 
Such  a  conclusion  is  not  justified  by  the  premises. 
The  homage  is  not  warranted  by  the  facts.  It  will 
not  do  to  make  out  a  catalogue  of  human  weaknesses, 
and  then  urge  those  very  weaknesses  as  a  chief  title 
to  glory. 

In  the  opinion  of  some  it  is  wiser  and  kinder  to 
confess  at  once  that  the  image  of  Jesus  has  been  irre- 
coverably lost.  In  the  judgment  of  these,  it  is  unphil- 
osophical  to  set  up  an  ideal  where  none  is  required. 
No  doubt  every  effect  must  have  a  cause,  but  to  as- 
sume the  cause,  or  to  insist  on  the  validity  of  any 
single  or  special  cause,  is  unscientific.  Each  event  has 
many  causes,  a  complexity  of  causes.  Renan  him- 
self says  :  "  It  is  undeniable  that  circumstances  told 
for  much,  in  the  success  of  this  wonderful  revolution. 
Each  stage  in  the  development  of  humanity  has  its 
privileged  epoch,  in  which  it  reaches  perfection  with- 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST.         203 

out  effort,  by  a  sort  of  spontaneous  instinct.  The 
Jewish  state  offered  the  most  remarkable  intellectual 
and  moral  conditions  that  the  human  race  ever  pre- 
sented. It  was  one  of  those  divine  moments  when  a 
thousand  hidden  forces  conspire  to  produce  grand  re- 
sults, when  fine  spirits  are  supported  by  floods  of 
admiration  and  sympathy." 

In  truth,  was  such  a  person  as  Jesus  is  presumed 
to  have  been,  necessary  to  account  for  the  existence 
of  the  religion  afterwards  called  Christian }  As  an 
impelling  force  he  was  not  required,  for  his  age  was 
throbbing  and  bursting  with  suppressed  energy. 
The  pressure  of  the  Roman  empire  was  required  to 
keep  it  down.  The  Messianic  hope  had  such  vitality 
that  it  condensed  into  moments  the  moral  results  of 
ages.  The  common  people  were  watching  to  see  the 
heavens  open,  interpreted  peals  of  thunder  as  angel 
voices,  and  saw  divine  portents  in  the  flight  of  birds. 
Mothers  dreamed  that  their  boys  would  be  Messiah. 
The  wildest  preacher  drew  a  crowd.  The  heart  of 
the  nation  swelled  big  with  the  conviction  that  the 
hour  of  destiny  was  about  to  strike,  that  the  kingdom 
of  heaven  was  at  hand.  The  crown  was  ready  for 
any  kingly  head  that  might  dare  to  assume  it.  That 
in  such  a  state  of  things  anticipation  should  fulfil 
itself,  the  dream  become  real,  the  vision  become  solid, 
is  not  surprising.  It  was  not  the  first  time  faith  has 
become  fact.     The  first  generation  of  our  era  exhib- 


204         THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

ited  no  phenomena  that  preceding  generations  had 
not  prepared  for  and  could  not  produce.  No  surprising 
original  force  need  have  been  manifested.  The  spirit 
was  the  native  spirit  of  the  old  vine  growing  in  the  old 
vineyard. 

Jesus  is  not  necessary  to  account  for  the  ethics  of 
the  New  Testament.  They  were  as  has  been  said, 
the  native  ethics  of  Judaism,  unqualified.  The  breadth 
and  the  limitation,  the  ideal  beauty  and  the  practical 
point  were  alike  Jewish.  The  gorgeous  abstractions, 
gathered  up  in  one  discourse,  look  like  fresh  revela- 
tions of  God  ;  as  autumn  leaves  plucked  and  set  in  a 
vase  seem  more  luminous  than  do  myriads  of  the 
same  leaves  covering  the  mountains  and  the  meadows, 
their  crimson  and  gold  blending  with  the  brown  of 
the  soil  and  the  infinite  blue  of  the  sky.  The  ethics 
of  the  New  Testament,  like  the  ethics  of  the  Old, 
have  their  root  in  the  faith  that  Israel  was  a  chosen 
people  ;  in  the  expectation  of  a  king  in  whom  the 
faith  should  be  crowned ;  in  the  anticipation  of  a 
judgment  day,  a  national  restoration,  a  celestial  sun- 
burst, a  final  felicity  for  the  faithful  of  Israel.  The  en- 
thusiasm, the  extravagance,  the  fanaticism,  the  passive 
trust,  the  active  intolerance,  the  asceticism,  the  arbitra- 
riness, bespeak  in  the  one  case  as  in  the  other,  the  pres- 
ence of  an  intense  but  narrow  spirit.  They  are  not  the 
ethics  of  this  world.  They  are  not  temporal.  The 
power  of  an  original,  creative  soul  should  be  attested 


THE    CRADLE    OF    THE    CHRIST.  205 

by  some  modification  of  the  popular  code,  rather 
than  by  an  exaggeration  of  it.  We  should  look  for 
something  new,  not  for  a  more  emphatic  repetition  of 
the  old.  But  nothing  new  appears.  The  exaggera- 
tions are  exaggerated  ;  the  precepts  suggested  by  the 
distant  prospect  of  the  kingdom  are  simply  reiterated 
in  view  of  its  speedy  establishment.  Trust  in  Provi- 
dence and  faith  in  the  Messiah  are  all  in  all  ;  the 
virtues  of  common  existence  are  less  and  less.  The 
inhumanities  that  Renan  ascribes  to  an  access  of  fan- 
aticism in  Jesus  are  the  humanities  of  an  unreal 
Utopia. 

The  prodigious  manifestation  of  mental  and 
spiritual  force  that  broke  out  in  Paul  requires  no  ex- 
planation apart  from  his  own  genius.  He  never  saw 
Jesus  and  apparently  was  incurious  about  him.  His 
originality  was  intellectual,  and  his  system  bears  no 
trace  of  a  foreign  personality.  As  Renan  says  :  "  The 
Christ  who  communicates  private  revelations  to  him  is 
a  phantom  of  his  own  making  ;"  "  It  is  himself  he  list- 
ens to,  while  fancying  that  he  hears  Jesus."  If  ever  man 
was  self-motived,  self-impelled,  self-actuated,  it  was  he. 
He  needed  no  prompter.  Hot  of  brain  and  heart,  he 
was  only  too  swift  to  move.  Whether,  as  some  think, 
driven  by  over-mastering  ambition  to  lead  a  new 
movement,  or,  as  others  contend,  constrained  by  in- 
ward urgency  to  attem^Dt  a  moral  reform  on  a  specula- 
tive basis,  or,  according  to  yet  a  third   supposition. 


20D         THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

eager  to  bear  the  glad  tidings  of  the  gospel  to  the 
gentile  world,  his  own  genius  was  from  first  to  last, 
his  guide  and  inspiration.  There  is  no  evidence  to 
prove  that  his  "  conversion  "  added  anything  new  to 
the  mass  of  his  moral  nature,  or  changed  the  quality 
of  ruling  attributes,  or  determined  the  bent  of  his  will 
to  unpremeditated  issues.  He  was  converted  to  the 
Christ,  not  to  Jesus  ;  and  his  conversion  to  the  Christ, 
was  nothing  absolutely  unprepared  for.  His  zeal  for 
Israel  blazed  furiously  against  the  disciples  who 
claimed  that  the  Christ  had  come,  and  to  the  end  of 
his  stormy  days  it  still  continued  to  burn  against  dis- 
ciples of  the  narrow  school  who  would  not  believe  he 
had  come  to  any  but  Jews.  His  zeal  for  Israel,  sent 
him  away  by  himself  to  meditate  a  grander  Christ. 
The  Christ,  not  Jesus,  was  his  watch-cry.  A  man  of 
ideas,  intensely  interested  in  speculative  questions, 
keenly  alive  to  the  joy  of  controversy  and  the  ecstasy 
of  propagandism,  he  filled  his  boiler  with  water  as  he 
rushed  along,  leaving  Peter  and  the  rest  to  fill  theirs  at 
the  nazarene  spring.  So  little  is  Jesus  to  be  credited 
with  Paul's  achievement,  that  it  is  the  fashion  to  call 
his  a  distinct  movement.  Enthusiastic  admirers  of 
his  genius,  call  him  the  real  founder  of  Christianity. 
Severe  critics  of  his  claim  accuse  him  of  corrupting 
the  religion  of  Jesus  in  its  spirit,  and  diverting  it 
from  its  purpose.  On  either  supposition,  he  was  not 
a  disciple. 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST.         20/ 

The  worship  of  Jesus,  it  has  been  said,  is  the 
redeeming  feature  of  Christianity.  This  evidently  is 
the  opinion  of  John  Stuart  Mill,  who  writes,  confound- 
ing, as  is  usual,  Jesus  with  the  Christ  :  "  The  most 
valuable  part  of  the  effect  on  the  character  which 
Christianity  has  produced  by  holding  up  in  a  divine 
person  a  standard  of  excellence  and  a  model  for  imita- 
tion, is  available  even  to  the  absolute  unbeliever,  and 
can  nevermore  be  lost  to  humanity.  For  it  is  Christ 
rather  than  God  whom  Christianity  has  held  up  to 
believers  as  the  pattern  of  perfection  for  humanity. 
It  is  the  God  incarnate,  more  than  the  God  of  the 
Jews  or  of  nature,  who  being  idealized  has  taken  so 
great  and  salutary  a  hold  on  the  modern  mind ; "  and 
more  to  the  same  effect,  in  the  essay  on  Theism  = 
Before  Mr.  Mill's  intellectual  eccentricities  were  as 
well  understood  as  they  are  now,  this  testimony  to  the 
humanizing  influence  of  christian,  as  distinct  from 
philosophical  theism,  would  have  possessed  great 
weight.  As  it  is,  it  only  excites  our  wonder  that 
so  keen  and  inexorable  a  thinker  should  so  completely 
lose  sight  of  facts.  That  Christendom  has  wor- 
shipped the  Christ  is  true.  Is  it  true  that  it  has 
worshipped  Jesus  ?  Again  we  might  say  :  Yes  ; — the 
Jesus  who  demanded  faith  in  himself  as  the  condition 
of  salvation  ;  the  Jesus  who  depicted  the  Son  of  Man, 
sitting  on  a  throne  of  judgment,  summoning  before 
him  all  nations,  and  placing  the  sheep  on  his  right 


208         THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

hand,  the  goats  on  his  left ;  the  Jesus  who  threatened 
everlasting  fire,  and  spoke  of  the  devil  and  his  angels ; 
the  Jesus  who  made  the  church  umpire  in  matters  of 
faith  and  works  ;  the  Jesus  who  bade  his  friends  for- 
sake father  and  mother,  brother  and  sister  for  his 
sake.  But  did  Christendom  ever  deify  the  man  of  the 
Beatitudes,  the  relator  of  the  parables  of  the  Good 
Samaritan  and  the  Prodigal  Son,  the  friend  of  public- 
ans and  sinners  ?  Is  Jesus  the  central  figure  in  the 
Nicene,  or  the  Athanasian  creed  .^  Is  he  the  God  of 
Calvin,  or  of  Luther,  of  Augustine,  even  of  Borromeo, 
or  Fenelon  ?  Long  before  the  dogmatical  or  ecclesias- 
tical system  of  Christendom  was  formed,  the  image  of 
Jesus  had  faded  away  from  the  minds  of  christians,  if 
it  ever  was  stamped  there.  That  it  was  ever  stamped 
there  is  not  quite  apparent.  In  the  east  there  exists 
no  trace  of  it  after  the  apostolic  age,  or  beyond  the 
circle  of  his  personal  friends.  In  the  west  the  per- 
sonal influence  is  not  distinctly  visible  at  any  dis- 
tance. From  the  reported  heroism  of  the  early 
christian  centuries  no  solid  conclusion  can  be  drawn, 
for  the  reason  that  the  reports  come  from  panegyrists 
like  Tertullian,  and  from  a  period  when  the  apostolic 
age  had  become  a  tradition.  Writers  like  Neander 
make  the  most  of  a  few  recorded  instances  of  devotion 
which  distinguished  the  christians  from  the  pagans 
about  them  ;  and  James  Martineau  uses  them  as  evi- 
dence of  an    original    spiritual   genius  in  the  young 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST.         2O9 

religion.  They  are  indeed  beautiful,  but  they  do  not 
refer  back  so  far  as  the  historical  Jesus  for  their  source 
of  inspiration.  That  in  a  community  composed,  with 
scarcely  an  exception,  of  poor  people,  the  ordinary 
social  distinctions  should  be  unobserved  ;  that  slaves, 
among  whom  in  early  times  many  converts  were 
made,  should  have  been  acknowledged  as  brethren  in 
Christ  ;  should  have  appeared  in  public  religious 
meetings  as  equal  with  the  rest  before  the  Lord; 
should  have  partaken  of  the  communion  on  the  same 
terms,  taking  their  place  among  the  believers,  and 
receiving  the  passionless  kiss  of  brotherhood  and 
of  sisterhood,  is  not  surprising,  especially  when  it  is 
considered  that  these  slaves  belonged  to  hardy,  white 
races,  that  they  discharged,  some  of  them  at  least,  the 
most  honorable  offices  of  labor,  and  were,  except  for  the 
mere  accident  of  their  condition,  physically  as  well  as 
morally,  peers  of  the  best. 

It  is  simply  in  the  course  of  nature  that  poor  peo- 
ple, grouped  in  communities,  sharing  a  common  and 
a  painful  lot,  should  help  each  other  in  times  of  trou- 
ble. The  christians  did  so.  At  every  weekly  or 
monthly  service  collections  were  made  for  the  relief  of 
the  poor,  the  sick,  the  infirm,  the  aged,  widows,  pris- 
oners, and  toilers  in  the  mines.  These  contributions 
were  sent  to  the  points  of  greatest  need,  converging  on 
occasion  from  many  directions  at  centres  of  extreme 
necessity.     It   is  recorded  that  a,boiit  the  middle  of 

14 


2IO         THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

the  third  century  several  members  of  the  church  in 
Numidia,  men  and  women,  were  carried  off  captive 
by  barbarians.  The  Numidian  churches  being  poor 
apphed  to  the  MetropoHtan  church  at  Carthage. 
Cyprian,  the  bishop  there,  collected  more  than  four 
thousand  dollars  in  his  diocese  and  sent  the  money  as 
ransom,  with  a  letter  full  of  sentiments  of  kindness. 
On  another  occasion  a  portion  of  the  sacred  vessels  of 
the  sanctuary  were  sold  to  raise  funds  for  a  similar  pur- 
pose. In  this  there  was  nothing  strange.  The  acts 
were  done  in  strict  conformity  with  a  long  established 
usage. 

A  more  remarkable  example  often  cited  in  evi- 
dence that  the  spirit  of  Jesus  was  alive  still  in  the 
societies  that  worshipped  him  as  Lord,  occurred  in 
the  year  254,  shortly  after  the  Decian  persecution, 
the  most  general  and  the  most  hideous  to  which  the 
church  had  been  exposed.  In  consequence  of  this 
persecution,  which  was  attended  with  such  slaughter 
that  the  unburied  bodies  poisoned  the  air,  a  fearful 
pestilence  broke  out  in  the  city  of  Alexandria.  Un- 
happily for  the  literalness  of  the  truth,  it  is  Lactantius 
who  tells  the  story.  ''  The  plague,"  he  says,  "  made 
its  appearance  with  tremendous  violence  and  desola- 
ted the  city,  so  that,  as  Dionysius,  the  Christian 
(.bishop  writes,  there  were  not  so  many  inhabitants 
left,  of  all  ages,  as  heretofore  could  be  numbered  be- 
tween forty  and  seventy.     In  this  emergency  the  per- 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST.         211 

secuted  christians  forgot  all  but  their  Lord's  precept, 
and  were  unwearied  in  their  attendance  on  the  sick, 
many  perishing  in  the  performance  of  this  duty  by 
taking  the  infection.     '  In  this  way '  says   the  bishop 
with  touching  simplicity,  '  the  best  of  the  brethren  de- 
parted this   life,  some   ministers,  and  some  deacons,' 
the  heathen  having  abandoned   their  friends  and  re- 
lations to  the  care  of  the  very  persons  whom  they  had 
been   accustomed  to  call  men-haters.      A  like  noble 
self-devotion    was    shown    at    Carthage,    when    the 
pestilence  which  had  desolated  Alexandria  made   its 
appearance  in  that  city,  and,  I  quote  the  words  of  a 
contemporary,  '  all  fled  in  horror  from  the  contagion, 
abandoning   their   relations    and  friends,    as    if  they 
thought  that  by  avoiding  the  plague,  any  one  might 
also  exclude  death  altogether.     Meanwhile   the  city 
was   strewed  with  the  bodies  or  rather   carcasses  of 
the   dead,  which  seemed   to   call    for   pity   from   the 
passers  by,  who  might  themselves  so  soon  share  the 
same  fate  ;  but  no  one  cared  for  anything  but  miser- 
able pelf;  no   one  trembled  at  the  consideration   of 
what  might  so  soon  befall  him  in    his  turn  ;  no  one 
did  for  another  what  he  would  have  wished  others  to 
do  for  him.     The  bishop  hereupon  called  together  his 
flock,  and,  setting  before  them  the  example  and  teach- 
ing of  their  Lord,  called  on  them  to  act  up  to  it.     He 
said  that  if  they  took  care  only  of  their  own  people, 
they  did    but   what    the   commonest   feeling    would 


212         THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

dictate  ;  the  servant  of  Christ  must  do  more,  he  must 
love  his  enemies,  and  pray  for  his  persecutors  ;  for 
God  made  his  sun  to  rise  and  his  rain  to  fall  on  all 
alike,  and  he  who  would  be  the  child  of  God  must 
imitate  his  Father.'  The  people  responded  to  his 
appeal  ;  they  formed  themselves  into  classes,  and 
they  whose  poverty  prevented  them  from  doing  mo  re 
gave  their  personal  attendance  while  those  who  had 
property  aided  yet  further.  No  one  quitted  his  post 
but  with  his  life."  The  example  shows  the  more 
gloriously  against  the  dark  background  of  horror  that 
stood  so  near.  Yet,  to  the  misery  of  the  persecution 
by  which  the  people  were  educated  in  sympathy, 
patience,  fortitude,  and  willingness  to  resign  life,  the 
benignant  heroism  must,  in  part,  have  been  due.  Pre- 
vious to  the  persecution  the  spirit  of  consecration  had 
departed  from  the  church.  Christianity  had  become 
a  social  and  class  affair.  Luxury  had  crept  in,  and  eaten 
up  the  heart  of  conviction.  The  alliance  of  church 
and  state  had  been  especially  disastrous  to  the  church, 
the  mingling  of  secular  ambition  with  spiritual  aspi- 
ration operating  fatally  on  the  finer  qualities  of  faith. 
Few  could  have  suspected  then  that  the  spirit  of 
Jesus  had  ever  been  with  the  church.  The  persecu- 
tion purged  the  christian  communities  with  fire.  The 
surface  was  burned  over,  and  only  the  roots  and 
seeds  were  left  in  the  ground.  The  persecution 
ended,  tranquillitybeing  restored,  the  roots  burgeoned, 


THE    CRADLE    OF    THE    CHRIST.  213 

the  seeds  sprung  up,  all  the  heroism  of  the  two  dread- 
ful years,  all  the  patience  and  fortitude  turned  to 
gentleness;  and  a  copious  rain  of  mercy,  blessing  every 
body,  even  the  persecutors,  was  the  result  of  the 
battle's  thunder  and  flame.  The  suffering  that  had 
been  endured  softened  the  heart  towards  all  suffering. 
The  persecutors  no  longer  active  or  hateful,  their 
passive  forbearance  seemed,  in  contrast  with  their 
recent  fury,  a  species  of  mercy  calling  for  positive 
gratitude.  Not  to  be  hated  was  felt  to  be  identical 
with  being  loved  ;  not  to  kill  was  by  sudden  revulsion 
of  emotion,  accepted  as  a  kindly  saving  of  life.  To  be 
kind  to  those  who  had  desisted  from  hurting  was 
natural.  Besides,  the  persecution  was  incited  and 
pressed  by  the  government  in  Rome,  The  populace 
even  there  were  not  responsible  for  it,  and  in  the  dis- 
tant provinces  simply  followed  the  metropolitan  pre- 
cedent. Their  infatuation  had  therefore  its  pitiable 
as  well  as  its  outrageous  aspect.  They  too  were 
victims  of  the  imperial  policy,  were  perishing  of  the 
contagion  which  that  policy  caused,  and  thus  were 
paying  a  terrible  penalty  for  their  own  unwitting 
crime.  It  is  unnecessary  to  suppose  that  any  per- 
sonal contagion  from  the  character  of  Jesus,  stealing 
through  the  murky  ages  of  eastern  and  western  life, 
communicated  its  saving  grace  to  the  Carthaginian 
brotherhood.  Uninspired  human  nature  is  sufficient 
to  explain  the  beneficent  display. 


214         THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

The  conclusion  is  that  no  clearly  defined  traces  of 
the  personal  Jesus  remain  on  the  surface  or  beneath 
the  surface  of  Christendom.  The  silence  of  Josephus 
and  other  secular  historians  may  be  accounted  for 
without  falling  back  on  a  theory  of  hostility  or  con- 
tempt. The  Christ-idea  cannot  be  spared  from  Chris- 
tian development,  but  the  personal  Jesus,  in  some 
measure,  can  be. 

In  some  measure,  not  wholly ;  the  earliest  period 
of  the  church  does  require  his  presence ;  the  first, 
the  original,  the  only  disciples  lived  under  the  in- 
fluence of  a  great  personalty,  and  were  moulded  by  it. 
Their  attachment  to  a  commanding  friend  is  avowed 
in  the  apparently  authentic  parts  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment. If  we  know  anything  about  those  men,  it  is 
that  they  lived,  moved  and  had  their  being  in  the 
memory  of  a  great  friend.  Their  attachment  to 
him  took  hold  of  their  heart-strings.  They  were 
haunted  by  him.  This  appears  in  their  frequent 
meetings  for  the  expression  and  confirmation  of  their 
feelings,  in  their  communion  suppers,  memorial  occa- 
sions purely  and  always,  without  a  trace  of  mysticism 
or  a  shade  of  awe  ;  in  their  attachment  to  the  places 
he  had  consecrated  by  his  presence  ;  in  their  affection 
for  each  other.  Ignorant  they  were,  unintellectual, 
unspiritual  in  the  moral  sense  of  the  word,  rather  im- 
pervious to  ideas,  dull,  common  place,  simple-hearted. 
They  were  not  soaring  spirits,  audacious,  independent 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST.         21 5 

like  Paul,  but  exactly  the  reverse,  timid,  self-dis- 
trustful, pusillanimous  by  constitution.  Their  ambi- 
tion flew  low,  fluttering-  round  sparkling-  jewels  on 
the  Messianic  crown.  Their  master  was  not  such 
an  one  as  they  would  have  chosen,  had  they  been 
allowed  to  select.  He  met  none  of  their  expectations, 
he  fulfilled  none  of  their  hopes.  His  rebuke  was 
more  frequent  and  more  cordial  than  his  praise. 
Their  stupidity  annoyed  him,  their  selfishness  grieved 
his  heart.  Instead  of  justifying  their  confidence  in 
him  as  the  Christ,  he  utterly  overthrew  one  form  of 
it  by  allowing  himself  to  be  captured,  convicted  and 
put  to  death.  Still  they  clung  to  his  memory.  True, 
they  clung  to  him  in  the  conviction  that  he  was  the 
Christ  and  would  have  confessed  themselves  dupes 
had  that  conviction  been  dispelled.  But  why  was  it 
not  dispelled  ?  Why  did  they  believe,  in  the  face  of 
the  crushing  demonstration  of  the  cross  ?  They 
anticipated  his  return,  because  he  had  told  them  he 
should  reappear  in  clouds.  But  why  did  they  believe 
him  ?  Why  did  they  believe,  when  month  after  month, 
year  after  year,  went  by  and  still  he  did  not  return  ? 
It  was  because  they  loved  him,  and  trusted  him  in 
spite  of  evidence.  When  he  did  not  return,  they 
thought  he  meant  to  try  their  faith  ;  still  they  met 
together;  still  they  prayed  and  waited,  imagining 
themselves  to  be  in  intimate  communion  with  him  in 
his  skies. 


2l6         THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

That  these  men,  with  their  unworthy  conceptions 
of  the  kingdom,  accepted  him  as  their  Christ,  proves 
not  only  that  his  power  over  them  was  very  great,  but 
that  he  himself  lived  on  the  highest  level  of  hebrew 
thought,  and  illustrated  the  highest  type  of  hebrew 
character;  that  he  was  a  genuine  prophet  and  saint  ; 
all  the  more  so,  perhaps,  for  the  completeness  of  his 
self-abnegation.  Had  he  raised  the  standard  of  re- 
volt, and  appealed  to  arms,  h'is  name  might  have  been 
more  conspicuous  in  secular  history.  He  sacrificed 
himself  wholly  ;  kept  no  shred  of  preeminence  for  his 
own  behoof. 

Hence,  the  person  of  Jesus,  though  it  may  have 
been  immense,  is  indistinct.  That  a  great  character 
was  there  may  be  conceded  ;  but  precisely  wherein 
the  character  was  great,  is  left  to  our  conjecture.  Of 
the  eminent  persons  who  have  swayed  the  spiritual 
destinies  of  mankind,  none  has  more  completely  disap- 
peared from  the  critical  view.  The  ideal  image  which 
christians  have,  for  nearly  two  thousand  years  wor- 
shipped under  the  name  of  Jesus,  has  no  authentic, 
distinctly  visible  counterpart  in  history. 

This  conclusion  will  be  distressing  to  those  who 
have  accorded  to  Jesus,  by  virtue  of  a  perfect  human- 
ity a  certain  primacy  over  the  human  race,  and  even 
to  those  who,  regarding  him  as  the  complete  fulfil- 
ment and  perfect  type  of  human  character  have  looked 
to  him  as  the  beacon  star  ''  guiding  the  nations,  grop- 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST.         21/ 

ing  on  their  way."  It  will  be  welcome  only  to  the  few 
calm  minds  who  feel  the  force  of  ideas,  the  regen- 
erating power  of  principles.  These  will  rejoice  to  be 
relieved  of  the  last  thin  shadow  of  a  supernatural  au- 
thority in  the  past,  and  committed  without  reserve  to 
the  support  and  solace  of  simple  humanity  trained  in 
the  humble  observance  of  uninterrupted  law.  Their 
gratitude  for  the  human  influence  of  the  person  is  un- 
qualified by  distrust  of  the  claims  of  the  individual. 

The  Christ  of  the  fourth  Gospel — the  incarnate 
Word — who  has  been  asserting  absolute  spiritual  cre- 
atorship  over  his  disciples,  calling  himself  the  vine 
whereof  they  were  branches,  the  door  by  which  they 
must  enter,  the  light  by  which  they  must  walk,  the 
way  their  steps  must  tread, — says  to  them  at  the  criti- 
cal hour  :  "  It  is  expedient  for  you  that  I  go  away  ; 
if  I  go  not  away  the  Comforter  cannot  come  to  you." 
There  was  danger  in  his  personal  continuance.  They 
were  to  live  not  in  dependence  on  him,  but  in  com- 
munion with  the  "  Spirit  of  Truth,"  which,  as  pro- 
ceeding from  him  and  from  the  Father  also,  was  to 
bring  freshly  home  to  them  what  he  had  said,  and  to 
guide  them  further  on  to  all  truth.  How  many  times 
must  those  words  be  repeated,  with  new  applications 
in  the  new  exigencies  of  faith  !  How  little  disposi- 
tion do  we  iind  in  his  followers  to  heed  them  !  They 
have  gone  on  with  the  process  of  idealization,  placing 
him  higher  and  higher  ;  making  his  personal  existence 


2l8         THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

more  and  more  essential ;  insisting  more  and  more 
urgently  on  the  necessity  of  private  intercourse  with 
him  ;  letting  the  Father  subside  into  the  background 
as  an  "  effluence,"  and  the  Holy  Ghost  lapse  from  in- 
dividual identity  into  impersonal  influence,  in  order 
that  he  might  be  all  in  all  as  regenerator  and  saviour. 
From  age  to  age  the  personal  Jesus  has  been  made 
the  object  of  an  extreme  adoration,  till  now,  faith  in 
the  living  Christ  is  the  heart  of  the  gospel ;  philoso- 
phy, science,  culture,  humanity  are  thrust  resolutely 
aside,  and  the  great  teachers  of  the  race  are  extin- 
guished in  order  that  his  light  may  shine. 

Yet  from  age  to  age  the  warning  has  been  given 
again,  the  vain  farewell  has  been  spoken,  "  it  is  expe- 
dient for  you  that  I  go  away."  Perhaps  he  went,  in 
one  form ;  but  he  quickly  re-appeared  in  another ; 
and  each  new  presentation  had  its  own  special  kind 
of  evil  effect.  The  Christ  of  Peter,  James  and  John 
retired  to  make  room  for  Paul's  "  Lord  from  heaven." 
He  withdrew  in  favor  of  the  incarnate  Word.  The 
incarnate  Word  loses  irself  in  the  Second  Person  of 
the  Trinity.  The  imagination  of  man,  unable  to  in- 
vent further  transformations  rested  here  :  Christendom 
for  fifteen  hundred  years  has  knelt  in  awe  before  the 
divine  image  it  projected  on  the  clouds  of  heaven. 
But  the  work  of  disenchantment  began  early.  The 
sublimated  ideal  slowly  came  down  from  the  skies. 
The   glorified   Christ   assumed   the   lineaments   of  a 


THE    CRADLE    OF    THE    CHRIST.  219 

human  being,  from  Deity  became  archangel,  chief  of 
all  the  celestial  hierarchy;  from  archangel  slipped 
clown  through  the  ranks  of  spirits,  till  he  occupied  the 
place  of  Son  of  God,  preexistent,  and  in  attributes, 
super-human  ;  thence  he  declined  a  step  to  the  posi- 
tion of  premiership  over  the  human  family,  the  in- 
augurator  of  a  new  type  of  m^an,  virgin-born  as  indi- 
cating that  he  was  not  the  natural  product  of  the 
generations  but  was  introduced  into  nature  by  an 
original  law  ;  a  further  lapse  from  the  supreme  dignity 
brought  him  to  the  plane  of  humanity,  but  reported 
him  as  miraculously  endowed  with  gifts  from  the  Holy 
Spirit,  supernaturally  graced  with  attributes  of  power 
and  wisdom,  sent  on  a  special  mission  to  found  a 
church  and  declare  a  law,  raised  from  the  dead  to 
demonstrate  immortality,  and  lifted  to  the  skies  to 
establish  the  presence  of  a  living  Deity.  To  this  emi 
nent  station  he  bids  farewell  to  stand  as  the  perfect 
man,  teacher,  reformer,  saint,  before  the  enthusiastic 
gaze  of  humanitarians,  v/ho  made  amends  for  the  spoli- 
ation of  his  celestial  wardrobe  by  the  splendor  with 
which  they  endowed  his  human  soul.  Here  the  idealists 
place  him,  still  claiming  for  him  no  exceptional  birth, 
no  super-human  origin,  no  preexistence,  no  miraculous 
powers  over  nature,  no  superiority  of  wit  or  wisdom, 
no  immunity  from  errors  of  opinion  or  mistakes  of 
judgment,  no  fated  sanctity  of  will,  no  moral  impecca- 
bility, but  ascribing  to  him  an  unerringness  of  spiritual 


220         THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

insight,  an  even  loftiness  of  soul,  ail  incorruptibility 
of  conscience,  a  depth  and  comprehensiveness  of  hu- 
manity which  raise  him  far  above  the  plane  of  history, 
and  tempt  them  to  look  longingly  backward,  instead  of 
directing  a  steady  gaze  forward.  But  this  figure  is 
now  seen  to  be  an  ideal,  like  the  rest  unjustified  by 
chronicle  or  by  fact.  The  comforter,  which  is  the 
spirit  of  truth,  requires  that  he  should  go  away,  follow- 
ing his  predecessors  into  the  realm  of  majestic  and 
beneficent  illusion.  The  Christ  in  every  guise  dis- 
appears and  therj  remain  only  the  uneven  and  in- 
complete footprints  of  a  son  of  man  from  which  we 
can  conclude  only  that  a  regal  person  at  one  time 
passed  that  way. 

All  these  transformations,  it  will  be  observed,  came 
in  the  order  of  mental  development,  each  timely  and 
beneficent  in  its  place.  The  crowning  and  the  dis- 
crowning were  alike  inevitable  and  good.  The  glori- 
fication and  the  disappearance  were  both  justified. 
The  final  change  comes  neither  too  late  nor  too  soon  ; 
7iot  too  late,  for  still  the  immense  majority  of  mankind 
live  in  sentiment  and  imagination,  worship  ideal 
shapes,  being  quite  incapable  of  appreciating  knowl- 
edge, loving  truth,  or  obeying  principles.  It  will  be 
generations  yet,  before  any  save  the  comparatively 
few  think  they  can  live  without  this  great  friend  at 
their  side.  Sentiment  is  conservative.  The  poetic 
feeling  detains  in  picturesque  form  the  ideas  which  if 


THE    CRADLE    OF    THE    CHRIST.  221 

exposed  to  the  action  of  clear  intelligence  would  be 
rejected  as  unsubstantial.  The  imagination  like  the 
ivy  loves  to  beautify  ruins,  making  even  robber  castles 
and  deserted  palaces  attractive  to  tourists.  Words- 
worth, the  poet  of  Nature  expresses  the  feeling  that 
will  at  times  come  over  powerful  and  cultivated 
minds,  in  moods  of  sentiment — 

The  world  is  too  much  with  us  ;  late  and  soon, 
Getting  and  spending  we  lay  waste  our  powers. 
Little  we  see  in  Nature  that  is  ours  ; 
We  have  given  our  hearts  away,  a  sordid  boon  ! 
This  Sea  that  bares  her  bosom  to  the  Moon, 
The  winds  that  will  be  howling  at  all  hours, 
And  are  up-gathered  now  hke  sleeping  flowers, 
For  this,  for  everything,  we  are  out  of  tune. 
It  moves  us  not; — Great  God  !  I'd  rather  be 
A  Pagan  suckled  in  a  creed  outworn  : 
So  might  I,  standing  on  this  pleasant  lea, 
Have  glimpses  that  would  make  me  less  forlorn, 
Have  sight  of  Proteus  rising  from  the  sea. 
Or  hear  old  Triton  blow  his  wreathed  horn. 

This  is  pure  sentiment.  The  sea  was  as  lovely  to 
Wordsworth,  is  as  lovely  to  Tyndall,  as  it  was  to  the 
superstitious  Greeks.  The  winds  awaken  similar 
emotions  in  the  sensitive  being.  Why  then,  should 
Wordsworth,  having  all  that  is  or  ever  was  to  be  had, 
beauty  of  form,  movement,  color,  regret  the  super- 
stition that  peopled  the  sea  with  fanciful  beings  and  ani- 
mated the  winds  with  supernatural  spirits  ?     Why  not 


222         THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

be  content  with  the  facts,  and  the  more  content,  be- 
because  the  fancies  are  gone  that  disguised  them  ?  Is 
it  not  a  weakness  to  love  dreams  better  than  realities  ? 
Mr.  Leslie  Stephen,  in  his  admirable  "History  of 
English  Thought  in  the  XVIII  century"  explains  this 
mood  of  mind  by  saying  that  for  the  expression  of  feel- 
ing symbols  are  necessary,  and  superstition  supplies 
all  the  symbols  there  are.  The  bare  truth  may  awaken 
emotions,  but  it  gives  them  no  voice,  and  emotion  un- 
uttered,  becomes  feeble ;  in  all  but  sensitive  natures 
it  dies."  "In  time,"  says  Mr.  Stephen,  "the  loss  may 
be  replaced,  the  new  language  may  be  learnt ;  we  may 
be  content  with  direct  vision,  instead  of  mixing  facts 
with  dreams  ;  but  the  process  is  slow  ;  and  till  it  is 
completed,  the  new  belief  will  not  have  the  old  power 
over  the  mind.  The  symbols  which  have  been  asso- 
ciated with  the  hopes  and  fears,  with  the  loftiest  aspi- 
rations and  warmest  affections  of  so  many  generations 
may  be  proved  to  be  only  symbols  ;  but  they  long 
retain  their  power  over  the  imagination."  It  is  not 
wise,  therefore,  to  be  impatient  with  sentiment  that 
has  so  valid  an  excuse  ;  nor  is  it  magnanimous  to  stig- 
matize as  weak  and  childish  the  romantic  attachment 
to  the  symbol  which  is  all  that  remains,  which,  with 
the  unthinking,  unadventurous  multitude  is  so  large  a 
part  of  what  abides  of  the  mind's  spiritual  endowment. 
We  must  be  patient  with  the  conservatism  that  is  born, 
not  of  fear,  but  of  feeling,  sympathizing  when  we  can, 


THE    CRADLE    OF    THE    CHRIST.  223 

with  those  that  grieve  when  the  idols  lose  their  sancti- 
ty, and  rejoicing  that  sentiment  has  the  power  to  break 
the  shock  caused  by  the  sudden  dispelling  of  illusions. 
At  the  same  time,  it  must  be  remembered  that  intel- 
lect is  the  propeUing  force  in  the  intellectual  world ; 
that  the  acute,  unimaginative,  determined  minds,  impa- 
tient of  the  mists,  however  beautiful,  that  conceal 
knowledge,  clear  a  way  for  the  homes  and  gardens 
of  the  new  generations  ;  that  the  love  of  truth,  simple 
and  unadorned,  is  the  mother  at  last  of  real  beauty. 
The  disappearance  of  the  resplendent  figure  of  the 
Christ  from  the  heaven  of  our  philosophy  has  not, 
therefore,  come  too  soon ;  for  thinking,  clear-sighted, 
brave  and  resolute  minds  there  are.  Discerning  eyes, 
bright  and  gentle,  look  out  and  see  the  fields,  sown 
with  new  seed,  whitening  for  anew  harvest.  To  such 
as  these  Jesus  is  no  longer  necessary  for  faith  in  hu- 
manity, for  enthusiasm  and  constancy  in  humanity's 
service.  Heroic  men  and  saintly  women  exist  in  such 
numbers  and  in  such  variety  that  they  sit  in  judg- 
ment on  the  judges,  and  call  the  censors  to  account. 
The  education  of  mankind  in  the  qualities  that  knit 
and  adorn  society  has  gone  so  far  that  these  virtues 
require  no  longer  a  superhuman  representative  to  give 
them  honor.  Knowledge  of  every  kind  has  so  abun- 
dantly increased  that  the  aid  of  revelation  to  throw 
light  on  important  subjects  is  not  demanded.  Philoso- 
phy, literature,  science    have  taken  possession  of  the 


224         THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

fields  once  occupied  by  the  surmise  of  faith,  and  are 
carefully  mapping  out  the  departments  of  speculation. 
The  problems  that  remain  dark, — and  they  are  the 
many, — we  are  content  should  remain  so  till  light 
comes  from  the  proper  sources.  The  darkest  of  them, 
no  darker  than  they  have  always  been,  are  no  longer 
complicated  by  the  difficulties  of  revelation  which 
added  enigmas  where  there  were  enough  before,  but 
lie  open  to  all  the  light  that  can  be  thrown  upon  them. 
The  confusion  introduced  into  the  orderly  sequence 
of  the  world's  development  by  the  exceptionally  provi- 
dential man  subsides,  and  the  cumulative  power  of 
history  is  brought  to  bear  on  the  necessities  of  the 
hour.  Relieved  from  the  sacred  duty  of  turning  back- 
ward for  the  form  of  the  perfect  man,  thereby  over- 
looking the  present  and  suspecting  the  future,  we  are 
permitted  to  estimate  fairly  the  conditions  of  the 
present  existence,  and  to  prepare  for  the  future  with 
unprejudiced,  rational  minds.  The  standard  of  moral 
attainment  and  the  quality  of  moral  character  set  up 
as  authoritative  by  any  single  race,  however  distin- 
guished, by  any  one  era,  however  brilliant,  abuses  and 
injures  the  standards  of  other  races,  and  casts  suspicion 
on  the  attributes  of  other  generations.  The  belief  that  at 
some  time  humanity  has  already  come  to  full  flower,  dis- 
courages the  laborers  in  the  human  garden.  Humanity 
is  still  a-making;  its  perfection  is  prophecy  not  history. 
The    lesson  of   the  hour   is    self-dependence,    or 


THE    CRADLE    OF    THE    CHRIST.  225 

rather,  if  we  prefer,  dependence  on  the  laws  of  reason. 
It  will  be  a  gain  for  truth  when  true  thoughts  shall 
be  welcomed  because  they  are  true,  not  because  they 
are  spoken  by  a  particular  sage  ;  when  erroneous 
thoughts  shall  be  judged  by  their  demerits,  without 
fear  of  casting  affront  on  the  character  of  a  saint. 
James  Martineau's  tender  wisdom  gains  nothing  in 
charm  by  being  attributed  to  his  beautiful  fiction  of  a 
Christ,  and  Mr.  Moody's  painful  caricatures  of  Provi- 
dence have  an  unfair  advantage  in  being  sheltered 
behind  the  authority  of  the  Hebrew  Messiah.  The 
holy  beauty  of  Mr.  Martineau's  ideal  person  is  more 
than  offset  by  the  awful  grandeur  of  the  "  evangeli- 
cal "  Avenger,  equally  a  creature  of  imagination.  In 
the  realm  of  fancy  the  lurid  conception  outlasts 
and  overwhelms  the  radiant  one.  Safety  lies  in 
withdrawal  from  the  realm  of  fancy,  and  domes- 
tication in  the  humbler  realm  of  fact.  The  lesson 
can  be  now  safely  taught.  Let  men  learn  it  as 
soon  as  they  will.  Dependence  on  individual  person- 
alities has  been  the  rule  hitherto  ;  dependence  on 
general  ideas  and  organic  laws,  dependence  on  discov- 
ered fact  and  intelligent  conclusion,  will  be  the  re- 
liance hereafter.  As  for  the  demands  of  the  heart, 
which  must  have  persons  to  cling  to,  they  will  adjust 
themselves  to  the  new  science  and  will  satisfy  them- 
selves in  the  future  as  they  have  done  in  the  past.  Are 
all  the  fine  personalities  dead  >    Then  the  sooner  we 


226         THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 

give  them  a  chance  to  revive  by  removing  the  pro- 
digious personaHty  whose  shadow  has  blighted  them, 
the  better  for  us.  Are  there  none  to  love  with  en- 
thusiastic ardor  ?  Who  have  made  us  think  so,  if  not 
they  by  whom  all  amiable  and  adorable  attributes  have 
been  claimed  before  ?  Are  there  no  feet  it  is  an  honor 
to  sit  at,  no  heads  it  is  a  privilege  to  anoint,  no  hands  it 
is  a  dignity  to  kiss  ?  Whose  fault  can  this  be,  if  not  theirs 
who  challenged  the  adoration  of  men  and  women  and 
pronounced  it  consecrated  because  rendered  to  him  for 
one  ?  Are  there  no  leaders  worth  following,  no  causes 
worth  espousing  ?  They  that  think  so  must  be  lis- 
tening to  the  voice  that  bade  men  follow  in  Galilee, 
and  sighing  because  they  cannot  take  up  the  cross 
that  was  imposed  on  the  faithful  in  the  cities  of  Tudea. 
The  imagination  of  man  has  not  lost  its  power  or 
forgotten  its  function  since  it  performed  the  prodig- 
ious task  of  enthroning  its  hope  by  the  side  of  the 
godhead.  It  is  adequate  to  new  and  healthier  per- 
formance. A  world  of  fresh  materials  lies  before  it  ; 
new  heavens  display  their  glories  ;  a  new  earth  offers 
opportunity  and  prospect ;  a  new  humanity  presents 
its  varieties  of  good  and  evil.  New  beauties  gladden 
the  open  vision  ;  new  glories  fascinate  the  kindling 
hope.  The  regions  of  possibility,  so  far  from  being 
exhausted,  have  but  begun  to  disclose  their  treasures. 
The  realities  of  to-day  surpass  the  ideals  of  yesterday. 
Art  has  a  new  birth.     Poetry  has  a  new  birth.     Phil- 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST.         22/ 

osophy  teems  with  new  births.  These  all  look  for- 
ward with  confident  expectation.  Why  should  relig- 
ion, which  has  built  up  more  grandeurs  than  any  of 
them,  turn  her  back  to  the  new  day,  confess  her 
creative  power  exhausted,  and  creep  back  to  the  im- 
ages of  her  own  idolatry  .?  The  Christ-idea,  become 
human,  will  surpass  its  old  triumphs. 


AUTHORITIES. 

To  meet  the  wishes  of  such  as  may  desire  to 
know  on  what  grounds  his  opinions  are  founded,  or 
to  pursue  them  further,  the  author  gives  the  titles  of 
a  few  books  that  may  be  profitably  consulted.  It 
were  easy  to  make  a  long  list  of  erudite  works  ;  much 
easier  than  to  make  a  short  list  of  accessible  and  sug- 
gestive volumes.  In  an  essay  prepared  for  the  intel- 
ligent and  thoughtful,  not  for  the  learned  or  schol- 
arly class,  reference  to  stores  of  erudition  would  be 
out  of  place.  For  this  reason,  the  pages  are  left 
unencumbered  with  notes,  and  the  books  cited  are 
purposely  such  as  come  within  easy  reach  of  general 
readers.  The  better  known  book  is  preferred  before 
the  less  known,  the  conservative  when  it  will  answer 
the  purpose,  before  the  destructive.  If  the  whole 
case  were  presentable  in  English,  none  but  English 
authorities  would  be  mentioned.  Unfortunately  for 
the  general  reader,  the  best  literature  is  in  German 

or  French,  much  of  which  is  still  untranslated.     To 
228 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 


229 


indicate  these  is  a  necessity  for  those  who  are  ac- 
quainted with  those  languages,  while  those  who  are 
not,  will,  it  is  believed,  find  enough  in  English  writings 
reasonably  to  satisfy  their  need. 

The  titles  of  the  books  indicate  sufficiently  the 
points  on  which  they  throw  light.  The  classical  ref- 
erences, which  are  numerous,  are  most  copious  in 
Denis  and  Huidekoper,  though  Lecky,  Renan,  John- 
son and  others  cite  all  the  most  important. 


Allen,  J.  H. 
Baur,  F.  C. 


Baring-Gould,  S. 
Buddha. 

Cohen. 
Coquerel,  A. 


Cowper,  B.  Harris. 


Hebrew  Men  and  Times. 

Kanonische  Evangelien. 
Paulus, — (Translated.) 
Drei  Ersten  Jahrhunderte. 
Socrates  und  Christus. 
Die  Tiibinger  Schule. 
Ursprung  des  Episcopats. 
Lost  and  Hostile  Gospels. 
Romantic  History  of. 

Les  Deicides,  (Translated.) 
Histoire  du  Credo. 
Les  premieres  Transformations 
Historiques  du  Christianisme. 
Des  Beaux  Arts  en  Italie. 
The  Apocryphal  Gospels. 


Deutsch,  E.  The  Talmud. 

Didron.  Iconographie  Chretienne,  (Translated.) 


230 

Ewald,  Heinrich 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 


Fontane's. 
Furness,  W.  H. 


Gingsburg, 
Geiger. 
Greg,  W.  R. 

Huet,  F. 
Huidekoper,  F. 
Hennell,  C.  C. 

Hennell,  S.  S. 

Holyoake. 

Johnson,  S. 
Jost. 


History  of  the  People  Israel. 
Prophets  of  the  Old  Testament. 
Drei  Ersten  Evangelien. 
English  Life  of  Jesus. 

Le  Christianisme  Moderne. 

Life  of  Jesus. 

Jesus  and  his  Biographers. 

The  Essenes 

Judenthum  und  Seine  Geschichte. 

The  Creed  of  Christendom. 

La  Revolution  Religieuse. 
Judaism  at  Rome. 
Origin  of  Christianity. 
Christian  Theism. 
Christianity  and  Infidelity. 
Present  Religion. 
Christianity  and  Secularism. 

The  Worship  of  Jesus. 
Geschichte  des  Judenthum. 


Knight,  Richd.  Payne.     The  Symbolical  Language  of 

Ancient  Art  and  Mythology. 


Lecky,  W.  E.  H. 
Lundy,  J.  P. 


History  of  European  Morals 
Monumental  Christianity. 


THE    CRADLE    OF    THE    CHRIST. 


231 


Martineau,  James. 

Studies  of  Christianity. 

Merivale,  Charles. 

Conversion  of  the  Roman  Empire. 

Milman,  H.  H. 

History  of  the  Jews. 

History  of  Christianity. 

History  of  Latin  Christianity. 

Maury,  Alfred. 

Les  Legendes  Pieuses  du  Moyen 

Age. 

La   Magie   et    Tastrologie    dans 

I'antiquite  et  au  Moyen  Age. 

Neander,  A. 

Life  of  Jesus. 

Planting   and    Training    of    the 

Church. 

Newman,  F.  W. 

History  of  the  Hebrew  Monarchy. 

Phases  of  Faith. 

CathoUc  Union. 

Nicolas,  Michel. 

Des    Doctrines   Religieuses   des 

Juifs. 

Essais  de  Philos.  et  d'histoire  re- 

hgieuse. 

Philippson. 
Parker,  Theodore. 
Pressense,  Ed.  De, 


Etudes  Critiques  sur  la  Bible. 
Les  Evangiles  Apocryphes. 
Le  Symbole  des  Apotres. 

Developpement  de  I'idee  reHgieuse. 
Discourse  of  Religion. 
Jesus  Christ,  son  temps,  sa  vie, 
son  oeuvre. 


Renan,  Ernest.  Life  of  Jesus. 


232 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 


The  Apostles. 
St.  Paul. 
L'Antichrist. 

Etudes  d'Histolre  religieuse. 
Reville,  A.  Histoire  du  Dogme  de  la  Divinite  de 

Jesus  Christ. 
Essais  de  Critique  religieuse. 
Etudes  Critiques  sur  I'evangile  selon 

St.  Matthieu. 
Quatre  Conferences  sur  le  Christian- 

isme. 
La  vie  de  Jesus  de  M.  Renan. 
Theodore  Parker. 

L'enseignement  de  Jesus  Christ  com- 
paree  a  celui  de  ses  Disciples. 
Reuss,  Ed.  Histoire  du  Canon  dans  I'eglise  Chret- 

ienne. 
The  Apostolic  Age.     (Translated.) 
Rodrigues.  Origin  du  Sermon  de  la  Montagne. 


Schenkel. 
Schwegler,  A. 
Strauss. 


Schlesinger,  M. 


Character  of  Jesus  (tr.  by  Furness). 

Das  Nachapostolische  Zeitalter. 

Leben  Jesu.     (Translated.) 

Leben  Jesu  fur  das  Deutsche  Volk. 

Christliche  Glaubenslehre. 

The  Old  Faith  and  the  New. 

Supernatural  Religion. 

The  Historical  Jesus  of  Nazareth. 


THE    CRADLE    OF    THE    CHRIST.  233 

Salvador.  Jesus  Christ  et  sa  Doctrine. 

Tayler,  J.  J.  The  Fourth  Gospel. 

Thierry,  A.  Tableau  de  I'empire  Romain. 

Vacherot  Etienne.     La  Religion. 

Weber,  C.  F.       Neue  Untersuchung  iiber  das  Alter 
und  Ansehen  des  Ev.  der  Hebraer. 
Wise,  Isaac  M.     The  Origin  of  Christianity. 

Zeller,  Ed.  Acts  of  the  Apostles.     (Translated.) 

Strauss  und  Renan.     (Translated.) 


Washington  Irving's  Works. 


"  The  deliglit  of  cliildliood,  tlie  cliivalric  companion  of  refined 
"womanhood,  the  solace  of  life  at  every  period,  his  writings  are  an 
imperishable  legacy  of  grace  and  beauty  to  his  countrymen." 

Bracebridge  Hall.  Goldsmith.  Granada. 

Wolfert's  Roost.  AUiambra.  Salmagundi. 

Sketch-Book.  Columbus,  3  vols,  Spanish  Papers. 

Traveler.  Astoria.  Washington,  5  vols. 

Knickerbocker.  Bonneville.  Life  and  Letters,   3 

Crayon  Miscellany.  Mahomet,  2  vols.  vols. 


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